Anyone interview with Optiver?
- Thread starter rbenedict
- Start date
Who really cares what YOU think...
The thread is about getting a job at Optiver.
by no means did I attempt to hijack the thread with my previous comments. But I added them because it would also have helped me to hear different sides of the story when I got freshly out of college. I tried to make the point that there is a lot of political tape and not all is as those companies present themselves. In the end the fact still remains that not the brightest make the most money in trading and investing but the ones who know when to be disciplined and just sit on their hands and when to bet a stake. No matter how smart, without discipline and patience you never make it as a trader. I strongly assume you agree with this assessment. Obviously both can coexist but Optiver and a number other small shops miserably fail to screen applicants for the most important traits necessary in being taught trading successfully.
Before I got my job when I interviewed in the past (never with Optiver) I most often got the impression that I sit in front of three different types of people: a) A junior interviewer who wants to look smart and is afraid of being challenged by a candidate so he/she rather tries to pick some puzzles where he/she knows he/she will have the upper hand and can avoid discussing trading styles and strategies. Its funny how some of those companies start a candidate, who has got 5-10+ years of trading experience under his belt, off with some schmuck who entered the firm 1 or 2 years ago straight out of college or grad school. b) some of the senior guys try to put you through the same "nightmare" type of interview process they had to undergo when SmithBarney still meant something no matter how completely irrelevant it is whether you do or do not have the guts to throw a chair out of the window of the interview room because you were asked to open a locked window. c) Generally the most successful traders who interview you ask the least questions about some funny puzzles that you either solve in a second because you came across it on the net or you take your 5-10 minutes to work through. They skip and immediately move on to discuss trading experience, success/failures in life, how they were handled, market knowledge, an assessment of passion for this job... what they want to get out of their precious time spent is whether the candidate has the capabilities that it takes to put on trades, to exit at the right time, sometimes under immense pressure and to generate trading ideas and assess the risk. They almost always are willing and happy to share their throughts and ideas as well when being asked.
When I received offers it was almost never the money that made me decide to go with shop a or b but how many of the c type of guys were sitting as close to me as possible so I could learn from them and later on add value.
In the end I am absolutely convinced that also in 100 years most money is made by discretionary traders not by some machines. For that your raw IQ really is not the most important commodity.
Before I got my job when I interviewed in the past (never with Optiver) I most often got the impression that I sit in front of three different types of people: a) A junior interviewer who wants to look smart and is afraid of being challenged by a candidate so he/she rather tries to pick some puzzles where he/she knows he/she will have the upper hand and can avoid discussing trading styles and strategies. Its funny how some of those companies start a candidate, who has got 5-10+ years of trading experience under his belt, off with some schmuck who entered the firm 1 or 2 years ago straight out of college or grad school. b) some of the senior guys try to put you through the same "nightmare" type of interview process they had to undergo when SmithBarney still meant something no matter how completely irrelevant it is whether you do or do not have the guts to throw a chair out of the window of the interview room because you were asked to open a locked window. c) Generally the most successful traders who interview you ask the least questions about some funny puzzles that you either solve in a second because you came across it on the net or you take your 5-10 minutes to work through. They skip and immediately move on to discuss trading experience, success/failures in life, how they were handled, market knowledge, an assessment of passion for this job... what they want to get out of their precious time spent is whether the candidate has the capabilities that it takes to put on trades, to exit at the right time, sometimes under immense pressure and to generate trading ideas and assess the risk. They almost always are willing and happy to share their throughts and ideas as well when being asked.
When I received offers it was almost never the money that made me decide to go with shop a or b but how many of the c type of guys were sitting as close to me as possible so I could learn from them and later on add value.
In the end I am absolutely convinced that also in 100 years most money is made by discretionary traders not by some machines. For that your raw IQ really is not the most important commodity.
Can anyone recommend some good textbooks/websites to practice for the exam? Cheers
The people that interviewed me there we absolute pricks......chris towson was on his phone the whole time and could not have been more rude......months after the interview he got in trouble for trying to manipulate the oil markets, haha, that gave me a chuckle