Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2025)

Hudson River Trading | Hybrid | Full-time

We’re a quantitative trading firm based in NYC that trades hundreds of millions of shares each day on over 200 markets worldwide. We use math and technology in everything we do; our talented developers, engineers, and programmers build complex models and systems that allow us to make automated trading decisions on global markets.

We’re hiring for:

Algo Dev Internship | Singapore | https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/careers/?q=algorithm+deve...

C++ Software Engineer | Singapore | https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/careers/job/?gh_jid=12290...

Middle Office Analyst - Crypto | Singapore | https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/careers/job/?gh_jid=64576...

Trade Ops Engineer | Mumbai | https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/careers/job/?gh_jid=64380...

Software Engineer – Treasury Infrastructure | NYC, Chicago, ATX, London | https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/careers/?q=treasury&gh_sr...

Hi - could you tell me a little bit more about the interview process at HRT? Is it your standard FAANG-style leetcode / system design interviews? Or is it more math focused?

CS Phd student here: took an online assesment recently (for internship role). 3 questions in total. None of them were puzzle-type question, or required advanced data structure or algorithm knowledge, but they were more of implementation focused. One of the questions took me about 80 lines, in Python, which is quite a lot for these sort of tests.

I think they were the kind of problems where if you didn't break them down into smaller chunks, individually test each of them- it'd be quite hard to get them working in such a short time.

Thanks for your question! Our interview process varies by role, but generally includes a take-home coding test, one or two technical phone screens, and an onsite with 3–5 rounds. For algo developer roles, you can expect math-heavy topics like statistics and probability in addition to C++ or Python programming. Python and C++ Software Engineer interviews do not assess quantitative skills. Those roles focus more on topics like programming, debugging, and systems knowledge.

Beyond technical skills, we’re looking for strong problem-solving, communication, and a collaborative mindset. If you'd like to dig more into our software engineering interview process, we published a blog a few years ago focused on campus interviewing, but they're similar processes: https://www.hudsonrivertrading.com/hrtbeat/interview-at-hrt/

Hey, cool to see you guys here. Couple questions:

1. Is C++ required for all of your roles?

2. Any advice for someone who isn't coming from big tech or a top ranked university CS program to make a strong application?

Thanks

Don't take this the wrong way, but what sort of resume are you looking for at HRT?

I have sent many applications over the years with no responses. I have a masters and two bachelors from UW-Madison, which is arguably a top school in the area since UChicago doesn't have an engineering school (I also got into Michigan and Northwestern for context). I've build spacecraft for the Space Force and I've worked in latency-sensitive data and ML applications, and have plenty of C/C++ experience.

I know I sound very jealous right now (I am lol) but every time I look for SWE jobs in Chicago I see HRT paying to run ads, but I've never gotten an email back. Is this an Ivy-only company or something? What sort of stuff are you looking for?

Design Engineer here, curious if HRT has design roles open. Noticed that Two Sigma and Jane Street are expanding their teams, is HRT working on the same?

I too am surprised by the number of ads these firms put out. Reddit, YouTube, even advent of code. I can't imagine in a world where even underpaid entry level roles at small startups get hundreds of applicants that these firms have a shortage of candidates.

What I think happens behind the scenes is similar to elite universities: there's a strong desire to maintain a high rejection rate. It's probably a KPI of the HR team to get a high number of applicants, so their HR team goes to the bottom of the ocean and the top of mountains to paste job ads. It is however not at all a sign that they need people.