I left a startup for a regular hedgefund first; I think having a lot of outside interest in finance helped. Then the HFT firm hired me because now I had some f

I left a startup for a regular hedgefund first; I think having a lot of outside interest in finance helped. Then the HFT firm hired me because now I had some finance experience, and I knew C++. Another approach would be to look at the career pages of getco, citadel,etc, and diff your resume against what they want. Edit: but really, why are you dying to get in? I would guess startups are a better bet for most readers of HN, anyway.