如何在Jane Street获得量化实习机会

How to get a quantitative internship opportunity at Jane Street

Q&A with quantitative trading interns who will join Jane Street

Jane Street Capital is a quantitative trading company headquartered in New York. Because of its leadership in the global ETF trading field and its excellent quantitative analysis capabilities, it is regarded by many quantitative practitioners as the pinnacle of the industry. In addition, Jane Street is known for its open and collaborative work culture and generous compensation package. As a result, top talents from around the world compete to join the company every year.

In this article, we speak with a quantitative trading intern who is joining Jane Street to learn about his interview experience, preparation strategies, and his advice on how to land a position in quantitative finance. Out of respect for the Jane Street interview process, we will not reveal specific interview questions, but will provide an overview of the intern's overall experience. With this article, we hope to provide you with more information about what to expect when interviewing for a Jane Street quantitative trading position, and give you some practical preparation advice.

Q&A with Jane Street Intern

How did you apply for an internship at Jane Street?

I followed the standard procedure and submitted an application online through the Jane Street official website after the internship application opened. Overall, I’ve found that job fairs and internal referrals are less effective when applying for quantitative internships.

What do you think made you pass the resume screening?

Although I am not 100% sure, I think my participation in high school math competitions, excellent performance in statistics courses, and previous technical internship experience have all given me a lot of points. Additionally, I attended a target school, which may have played a role as well.

How is the interview process structured?

I went through four rounds of interviews in total, covering both technical and behavioral questions. Technical issues mainly focus on probability, statistics, expected value, market making and game theory. There were relatively few behavioral questions, mainly to understand my interests and expectations for the Jane Street internship.

• Round 1: Telephone interview
• Round 2: Telephone interview
• Round 3: Telephone interview
• Round 4: On-site interview

How did you prepare for the interview rounds?

I spent most of my time reviewing material from my statistics and probability courses before I started looking for other resources. In addition to the course content, I also referred to the following materials:

1. Dice Problem Set - This PDF contains a series of dice problems and their detailed solutions. I've done a lot of these questions, but going through them all one by one might be a bit redundant.
2. A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews - I read through this book and used it as a practice test to identify areas where I needed further strengthening.
3. Strategic Thinking - I read this book to enhance my intuitive understanding of game theory. However, I think the first two resources deserve more attention than this book.

What advice would you give to students who want to get an internship at Jane Street?

1. Describe your thinking process - What interviewers value most is your ability to analyze complex problems, reason and express your ideas clearly. When faced with a difficult problem, your goal is to break the problem down into small parts, solve them step by step, and explain how those steps ultimately lead to the overall answer.
2. Keep Calm and Show Perseverance - Often, you will encounter a problem or situation that is completely unfamiliar to you. At this point, the worst reaction is to panic. Stay focused, ask questions to make sure you understand the problem, and do your best to solve it. Interviewers will pay special attention to your persistence.

What are your misunderstandings about the Jane Street interview?

1. You must be a master of mental arithmetic to pass the interview - After interviewing with several other quantitative trading companies, I thought mental arithmetic would be a required test for the interview. But what surprised me was that Jane Street did not place much emphasis on mental arithmetic, but more on problem-solving abilities and logical thinking.
2. All questions must be answered correctly to advance to the next round -During my interviews, there were many instances where I took hints from the interviewer or overlooked certain details when solving questions. I thought this would stop me in my tracks, but it didn't.
3. Interviewers can be very stressful - Since I am not from the field of quantitative finance, I always thought that quantitative interviews would be very "brutal". However, the exact opposite is true. Every interviewer I encountered at Jane Street was very friendly and helpful.