Pros: Good food and large bonuses

Cons: Extremely political. The majority of where you must spend your time to survive at Optiver is politics. If you do not, you will be eaten by others that do. Management has zero interest in dissuading this behavior. Watch your commits, as large pieces of work will be quietly re-based into other developers' names. This is not by accident, as you'll start hearing word back that they're bragging about having written the code. Poor management promotes the worst people to management roles after seeing their own negative traits in them. Management is also gifted to long-term employees who cannot keep up with the technical work anymore. These managers all review each other, ensuring the quality stays low, as poor management has the majority and removes anyone that doesn't have the negative traits they hold up as ideal.

Pros: Very high compensation. Lots of perks. Free food.

Cons: Poor work-life balance. Lack of diversity. Individualistic culture, where everyone works for their own ratings.

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.