Penultimate

Penultimate students (students in the second-last year of their degree) can normally apply for summer internships.

These programs last 8-12 weeks over the summer before a student's final year, with the idea being that the student can get an idea of what working for the company would be like and whether they'd be a good fit. It also allows companies to identify potential future employees, with particularly strong candidates usually receiving an offer to return to the company with a previously mentioned grad role.

Applications are again early in the student's second-last year of university, so if a student were to graduate at the end of 2024, they should be looking to apply by February or March 2023 for a summer internship that would go from late 2023 until early 2024.

 

IMC Trading: Trading Internship

 

• "Trading Intern" job description

 

A 10-week internship (including 1 week of holidays), offered over the summer. Desired candidates have "strong analytical skills and desire to solve complicated problems", "the ability to make decisions in uncertainty and remain focused under pressure" and "a genuine passion for financial markets".

 

Optiver: Quantitative Trading Internship

 

• Quantitative Trading Internship job description

 

A 10-week internship (presumably including 1 week of holidays), offered over the summer. Candidates should be "lateral thinkers, with a passion for quantitative problems and working in dynamic environments". The program allows participants to be matched with a particular role, namely that of an Options Market Maker, D1 (Delta 1) Trader and an Institutional Trader. More details on these can be found in the linked above.

 

SIG: (Quantitative) Trading Internship

 

• Trading Internship job description

 

An internship of unknown length (most likely 8-10 weeks), offered over the summer. SIG's "Trading Internship" (referred to as their "Quantitative Trading Internship" in the rest of the job description) allows participants to learn more about how traders use "decision science, game theory and technology to make trading decisions". Ideal candidates should be numerate + logical, problem solvers, communicators and curious (see further details in the link above).

 

Jane Street: Quantitative Trader Internship

 

• Quantitative Trader Internship

 

An internship of unknown length (likely 10-12 weeks), offered over both the summer (December to March) and winter (June to September). Interns are paired with full-time employees (traders) who act as their mentors, assisting interns in completing real projects. They do not require applicants to have a background in any specific field, instead they look for "smart people who enjoy solving interesting problems", being "more interested in how you think and learn than what you currently know".

Whilst it is not mentioned on their website, Jane Street traditionally have not accepted internship applications from first-year students. Unlike other companies, you don't necessarily have to be a "penultimate" student to apply, but you can't be in the first year of your degree.

 

Citadel Securities: Trader - Intern (Australia)

 

• Trader - Intern (Australia) job description

 

An internship of unknown length (most likely 8-10 weeks), offered over the summer. They are looking for students who can "think about the world systematically and quantitatively", along with the ability to "deal with uncertainty in a rigorous and statistical approach", who also have an "interest in applying technology and/or quantitative skills to complex trading problems". Citadel Securities is technically a separate entity from Citadel LLC (the famous hedge fund), although both were founded by and are majority-owned by Kenneth Griffin. They have recently opened an office in Sydney and are currently "actively recruiting" new talent (as of early 2023), with notoriously high salaries for those who end up joining.