November 02, 2024
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Investment professionals from our team answer some of our candidates’ frequently asked questions.
Collaborative Unlike some other large alternative investment managers, where teams can be siloed or in competition with each other, we freely ask questions and seek help from resident experts, regardless of where they sit in the organization. Team members share ideas and best practices which results in a team-centric workflow.
Entrepreneurial Citadel fosters an entrepreneurial mindset. People are encouraged to innovate and given access to the resources required to transform their ideas into real-world outcomes. Investment professionals looking for new ways to problem solve will not find a better place to do so.
Best Ideas Win Here, our team members are encouraged to achieve their greatest ambitions. We support and reward initiative and smart risk-taking. The opportunity to grow and accelerate your career is based on skills and performance rather than title or tenure.
Open-minded Having an open and curious mind is critical to your success as an investment professional or trader. You need to be confident in your intuition while recognizing that you could be wrong. That is why we factor even low-probability events into our approach in order to manage risk.
Structured thinker Much of the work we do involves anticipating or reacting to market events, so it is important to develop frameworks that provide structure in times of uncertainty.
Disciplined and resilient The markets change in real-time and at lightning-fast speeds. To be successful, you need to maintain your focus and minimize distractions. Adopting a structured approach helps you separate the signal from the noise and reduces the likelihood of being sidetracked by low-impact market events or other distractions.
Innovative self-starter As the market moves and we consider our positions and strategies each day, our investors and traders look around corners to develop new and better ways of doing things—and they do it without being prompted. Innovation and initiative go a long way at Citadel.
A passion for markets, combined with the study of computer science, statistics or another quantitative field, is highly beneficial. Courses on probability, mathematics and data science are also quite useful.
At the beginning, you will have the opportunity to spend a lot of time learning—about the markets, how to manage risk and how to generate ideas. A team of experts supports our newest traders during that period. But, very quickly, you are likely to have considerable responsibility and the opportunity to make a real impact.
Depending on the team or strategy, every day can look different. Some make a few trades each day, hold them for months and spend time researching and building models. Others work across the firm globally and closely follow news in multiple markets day in and day out.
Either way, the work is stimulating. There are always new market factors to analyze and opportunities to unlock
Citadel brings together extraordinary colleagues. The ability to work with some of the best and brightest minds in the world, in an extremely collaborative environment, is inspiring. It also makes for an optimal training environment.
We have some of the best research resources in the industry, tailor-made to build out our strategies. From brilliant quantitative researchers to custom-built risk management tools, our teams have what they need to fuel their work. These resources help us quantify risk, simulate trades in different environments and test multiple hypotheses.
At Citadel, encouragement to pursue responsible risk-taking comes directly from our most senior leaders. And if the outcome is less than ideal, there is a genuine desire to dissect what happened. The same applies to when things go well. We identify which elements are due to luck and which are due to skill. The focus on continuous learning strengthens the firm’s competitive advantage and enriches those who build careers here.
However, the most important thing to learn in school is how to think critically and problem solve, both in and out of the classroom. Participation in clubs and competitions where you apply your skills in simulations can be useful, as can reading financial news and following the market developments.
