C/C++ is most common. Good luck getting their attention if you didn’t go to MIT, CMU, Stanford, etc.
Every other student there had (to me) a shockingly naïve understanding of software engineering, and many of them were done with school at this point, and had interned at big companies... 90%+ went to a school like the one you mentioned, and started looking through me when I shared the school I went to.
Maybe HFTs and hedge funds feel they need to hire from these schools, because they assume that the pool of candidates outside of these schools is even worse?
The actual engineers I spoke to were either very bright but kind of self conscious that they were “marrying down” for money, or very excitable and coming from non-eng backgrounds (physics, etc).
Can someone correct me if my impressions were wrong? I don’t want to name names, but these were two pretty successful companies, one was a Hedge Fund and the other was an HFT firm.
Generally speaking (so obviously not for everyone - but for most) working as a developer in trading was not anyone's first choice. Go figure what this means for the kids from brand names schools who end up working there. I say this is as someone who went to work at an HFT firm after MIT.
It is true that HFTs are more easily accessible to top schools but that's largely due to employee alumni networks and HFTs sending recruiters to school mixers and competitions. We sponsor competitions/hackathons at places like CMU and MIT (and send recruiters/reps to network/scout). If you go to $StateSchool, just apply through the usual channels (check websites for internships/graduate roles). If you can pass the automated tests, you'll get a phone/video chat screening.
Source - got an offer from Citadel previously without a top school or C/C++ expertise.
There was a paramedic on the trading floor. At least once a trader had a heart attack and the other traders were just casually stepping over him post-collapse, because... paramedic on the trading floor.
It was my first job post-college; in the first or second week I was there, a company wide email went out that stated the policy for in-office birthday parties was being changed in that strippers would no longer be reimbursed. Out of office it was still ok.
Anyone interested in those times should read "Liar's Poker"; it's a good overview, at least from what I remember, since where I worked was that same firm.