Optiver Reviews

Pros

Incredibly collaborative environment that presents constant opportunities to learn. Optiver gives young employees a chance to make a serious difference within an industry leading firm. The built in support system of extremely intelligent technical professionals helps members throughout IT learn to act in principled ways, leading to a stable, reliable IT infrastructure. The work is engaging, challenging, and rewarding. That, coupled with the benefits and workplace perks make this a great place to work.

Cons

Very few cons come to mind.

Pros

I worked at Optiver many years ago, so take everything with a grain of salt. From a trader perspective, they do a lot right. The people are very talented, the software is cutting edge and fast, and the compensation/benefits are very good. I think they also did a good job creating and keeping a culture where everyone tries to improve, and everyone feels like they're on the same team.

Cons

I feel like the top traders don't necessarily make for the top managers, and they need to continue to train traders throughout their career. Non-traders sometimes were treated like second class citizens, which obviously shouldn't be the case. The culture is very aggressive - there's a ton of pressure to keep improving or you could be out of the company sooner rather than later, which is a lot of stress to have. And the comp structure, while good, was very top heavy.

Pros

Very competitive internally and externally. Solid teams.

Cons

Relies strongly on organic growth, doesn't hire many experienced traders.

Pros

Extremely good compensation, trades a lot of products, well-established, relatively transparent

Cons

Some coworkers can be very difficult to work with and won't be told to change by management. Management in general doesn't really listen to your concerns