How to earn $600k in finance technology with zero experience 

Every year, swathes and swathes of fresh graduates are liberated to look for their first full time job. In front office finance, you're likely to get a decent salary, but those elusive $365k bumper packages are much harder to come by without having spent a few years in the industry.

If you want a ludicrous compensation package, electronic market makers and proprietary trading firms or hedge funds are where you'll want to look, but which of them pays graduates the best?

Salary data from levels.fyi offers some insights. 

The data above was collected from all salaries logged as "new grads."

It's worth noting that many of the highest paying firms don't have "graduate" hires per-se but instead have different tiers of seniority. Two Sigma for example was the highest paying level 1 salary employer on Levels' annual salary survey.

It doesn't take a keen eye to see the winner of these three, however. Quant firm Hudson River Trading wins by a landslide. Their average pay is higher than IMC's highest salary and their highest salary was a whopping $600k.

There's not just one person earning that amount at Hudson River, either, two people did. One was a backend engineer and the other worked in blockchain; the former received a $100k higher salary, however.

It is interesting to note however that Jane Street's compensation has the smallest spread. While a new grad at Hudson River could earn as low (if you can consider these kinds of salaries low) as $319k, Jane Street graduates generally know what they're in for in the compensation department.

Click here to create a profile on eFinancialCareers. Comment ANONYMOUSLY on articles and make yourself visible to recruiters hiring for top jobs in technology and finance. 

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: alex.mcmurray@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. 

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated 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. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)