Getting a top job as a STEM graduate takes a lot of preparation and years of forward planning, but the process starts earlier than you might think in elite quant trading houses. Many of Hudson River Trading’s earliest cohort of interns, who have since become acclaimed in the AI space, knew each other as teenagers.

💥Follow us on WhatsApp for news alerts.💥

Scott Wu, CEO of AI coding platform Cognition, said that Hudson River Trading’s first intern cohort met in high school on the competitive Olympiad circuit, where competitors can be as young as 14 (or even younger for extreme prodigies).  Multiple of Wu’s Cognition co-founders also emanated from the Olympiad scene, and interned with him at HRT. There were just 10 interns in total, but other major names include Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer of Meta and Hyperliquid founder Jeffrey Yan.

As internship programs at HRT and other quant firms have grown, the Olympiad scene has become a significant source of talent. One insider in the space told us that they’re particularly loved at ‘New York’ style trading firms like Hudson River and Tower Research, which are known for being more scientific and being founded by mathematicians. “You can probably get an internship with some New York-style firms just by virtue of having an Olympiad medal,” he said. 

That doesn’t mean other trading firms like Jane Street don’t love Olympiad medalists. Startup founder and ex-Jane Street intern Hilal Hussein said last year that various quant firms, including Jane Street, have strong presences at Olympiad events today. Zhuo Qun Song, the most decorated Olympiad medalist of all time, previously interned at Jane Street and worked full-time at hedge fund Citadel, which hires tens of Olympiad competitors for its internship program each year.

What makes Olympiad competitors so valuable? Tom Lovering, a former medalist now working as a quant for Citadel, said in 2024 that the competitions instil “a lasting appreciation for the joys of competition, collaboration, and continuous learning.” Given their competitive nature, it’s no surprise that so many of these Olympiad competitors have then gone on to become founders; now that people like Wang and Wu have paved that road, trading firms may have a hard time holding onto their top Olympiad stars.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: WhatsApp: http://wa.me/442079977910 (+44 20 7997 7910), Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.

Image Source: Envato