Pros: Good Benefits. Autonomy. Quick Impact.

Cons: Quite tired. You have to be a "trusted" dev in order to push things across the line. Everything is heavily geared toward immediate financial impact of a project.

Pros: Great Culture: Strong focus on testing, clean code, and simplicity. There's a lot of close teamwork, and the senior developers set an example with humility and hard work. Smart People: You get to work with mostly A-players. Stable and Successful: The company has been profitable for over 25 straight years. Not many trading companies can say that, especially these days. Work/Life Balance: It is great.

Cons: - Lots of young talent in need of "professional development." There's still an unnerving number of face-palm moments. - Hit-or-miss management: Some managers are fantastic, others leave a bit to be desired.

Pros: The people are the best part of Optiver, and they are why it is successful. As an intern, I was able to work with and learn from firm leadership, development leads, and developers at a wide range of experience levels. The human investment poured into my experience was great. Chats about technology at the firm in general and my work in particular were regular and helpful. Because of these engagements, I felt that I was both able to add real value during my internship, learn more about development, and learn more about the industry. The principles with which Optiver trades and develops are heavily stressed. These principles allow them to both work with intention and manage risk effectively. A developer intern has the opportunity to learn more about these principles and see them in practice at Optiver. Finally, developing production systems requires a different mindset and a different set of skills than academics. The internship can help you on your path to becoming a real-world software engineer.

Cons: Resources to get general trading knowledge didn't seem very well presented to me during the onboarding process. I felt that I learned these things gradually and on my own throughout the internship. Although, this isn't completely a bad thing.