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Info might be a bit dated, but, when it was a possible path for me, Jane Street was an OCaml house and did a fair bit of picking from Columbia grads who took th

Info might be a bit dated, but, when it was a possible path for me, Jane Street was an OCaml house and did a fair bit of picking from Columbia grads who took the OCaml version of Programming Languages & Translators. Legend also says they would ask candidates to do math problems in their head while the interviewers crinkled newspaper and talked loudly. Fair to say they are looking for exceptionally skilled and sharp candidates.

imnotreallynew 4y ago
Yea, OCaml is still referenced on their job posts.
JamesBarney 4y ago
Fair to say they have shitty hiring practices. If you want to give someone an IQ test give them an IQ test, don't crumple fucking papers while you talk loudly and ask them math questions. Sounds like a power trip.
- opportune 4y ago
  It’s a legal minefield to directly administer IQ tests in hiring because of all the legal precedent around them
  - JamesBarney 4y ago
    It's easier than many people make it out to be. I've been given a couple of IQ tests during a hiring in process.
- LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
  Would you like the job to be a painful surprise? I've had nice cushy dev roles where I had all the time I wanted and other support-adjacent roles where I felt like I was working surrounded by screaming toddlers - expected to sit on an incident response bridge while diagnosing and fixing things. I'm glad they told me what the role was like before I took it. The interview was friendly and casual, but involved a few people asking me to diagnose something and just cutting off "failed" paths and giving me the next bit of info, asking what that would imply and what we should test, to estimate how long it would take. If they'd de-stressed the interview the people they hired probably wouldn't be capable of or interested in the position. If they'd crumpled paper it would have helped by mimicking all the background noise from thirty unmuted phone calls. I hear these roles often involve coding in a boardroom meeting with a few quants and a few engineers, going back and forth with the model and performance issues. If this was done by email it could take weeks and the opportunity could be gone. If you aren't able to keep hacking at your task while the other handful of people are enthusiastically discussing another then you aren't going to be able to help the team.
- ladberg 4y ago
  Not saying it's a good hiring practice, but in theory shouldn't interviews match the real job as closely as possible? Trading desks can be loud, frenzied environments to do work in and if that's an issue for people then it's better to know at the interview stage.
acka 4y ago
Candidate: "I hope you don't mind me putting on some noise cancelling headphones while I work on this problem, please tap my shoulder if you have any questions." interviewer (thinking: "Ah! Finally we have a proactive self-reliant candidate who knows his own strengths and weaknesses!"): "Don't bother, you're hired. Let's go to HR so we can work out the details."

imnotreallynew 4y ago

Yea, OCaml is still referenced on their job posts.

JamesBarney 4y ago

Fair to say they have shitty hiring practices. If you want to give someone an IQ test give them an IQ test, don't crumple fucking papers while you talk loudly and ask them math questions. Sounds like a power trip.

opportune 4y ago
It’s a legal minefield to directly administer IQ tests in hiring because of all the legal precedent around them
- JamesBarney 4y ago
  It's easier than many people make it out to be. I've been given a couple of IQ tests during a hiring in process.
LawTalkingGuy 4y ago
Would you like the job to be a painful surprise? I've had nice cushy dev roles where I had all the time I wanted and other support-adjacent roles where I felt like I was working surrounded by screaming toddlers - expected to sit on an incident response bridge while diagnosing and fixing things. I'm glad they told me what the role was like before I took it. The interview was friendly and casual, but involved a few people asking me to diagnose something and just cutting off "failed" paths and giving me the next bit of info, asking what that would imply and what we should test, to estimate how long it would take. If they'd de-stressed the interview the people they hired probably wouldn't be capable of or interested in the position. If they'd crumpled paper it would have helped by mimicking all the background noise from thirty unmuted phone calls. I hear these roles often involve coding in a boardroom meeting with a few quants and a few engineers, going back and forth with the model and performance issues. If this was done by email it could take weeks and the opportunity could be gone. If you aren't able to keep hacking at your task while the other handful of people are enthusiastically discussing another then you aren't going to be able to help the team.
ladberg 4y ago
Not saying it's a good hiring practice, but in theory shouldn't interviews match the real job as closely as possible? Trading desks can be loud, frenzied environments to do work in and if that's an issue for people then it's better to know at the interview stage.

acka 4y ago

Candidate: "I hope you don't mind me putting on some noise cancelling headphones while I work on this problem, please tap my shoulder if you have any questions." interviewer (thinking: "Ah! Finally we have a proactive self-reliant candidate who knows his own strengths and weaknesses!"): "Don't bother, you're hired. Let's go to HR so we can work out the details."