Jane Street
- Jane Street is one of Wall Street's most lucrative trading firms.
- It's luring in the best talent with some of the most competitive salaries out there, even for its interns.
- Some internships at the firm offer a base salary equivalent to $250,000 annually.
Lucrative trading firm Jane Street is one of Wall Street's leading market-makers.
The technology-driven firm generated $10.6 billion in net trading revenue last year, according to bond issuance documents reported on by Bloomberg. It reported $4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
In a sign of its success, Jane Street currently has 58 job vacancies in its New York office. As expected of a high-flying trading firm, employees are generously compensated — most salaries range between $250,000 and $300,000 before various bonuses and perks are added on.
But whether it's an effort to lure in top talent or simply a generous executive suite, Jane Street's extremely high salaries even extend to summer interns.
A quantitative researcher internship, which runs from May to August, offers a base salary of $250,000 annually. That's almost $21,000 a month before tax.
"We don't expect you to have a background in finance or any other specific field," and "research experience is a plus," the job role states.
A trading desk engineering intern is offered slightly less, with a base salary of $175,000 annually.
Jane Street's huge intern salaries were first reported by the Financial Times' Alphaville blog.
Interns can also avail themselves of the company's on-site gym, and views across the Hudson River from its office near the World Trade Center.
An internship at Jane Street could see wannabe traders end up with a job at one of Wall Street's most formidable firms, joining noted alumni including now-jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda Research, FTX's sister firm.
While at Jane Street, Bankman-Fried was responsible for what he said was the firm's biggest-ever loss on a trade, a $300 million hole caused by the stock market rallying after Donald Trump's 2016 election win.
Jane Street's internship salaries are some of the highest out there. According to Glassdoor, the estimated total pay for a trading intern is $106,301 in New York.
In Business Insider's rundown of the internships offering the best pay and opportunities, JPMorgan and Barclays offered the highest in the financial sector, with a median base monthly salary of $8,333.
Of course, these are some of the most competitive application processes in the country. Plus, amid economic headwinds, some banks are cutting back on the number of interns they take on.
Goldman Sach hired 200 fewer summer analysts this year compared to 2023, while JP Morgan cut its summer class by 600, more than 10%, according to a report by the FT.