Didn't expect that much stress - Software Engineer Optiver Employee Review

2.0
Feb 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really friendly and smart people. The food is fantastic.

Cons

- Extremely high standards. I understand that trading firms always want to attract extremely smart people. But the standard settings here are not for hard-working smart people, they are for intelligent smart people(geniuses). In other words, to meet those requirements, long working hours and always pushing oneself every day is inevitable . - Peer review for the bonus. It will be taken as a waste of time if ask others for help and colleagues will give help. Since the project assigned to each one is "autonomy", employees here won't be evaluated by how much they help others, but only by the outcome of their own project, which is not helpful to the growth of technical skills in the long term. - Cultural fit. There is hardly anyone asking about your weekend plan, let alone your life plans. People working here only care about working efficiency and how much they can earn every year etc. What's more, people here are quite ego with their "prestige", which makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes.

Explore other reviews about Optiver

5.0
Feb 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

worked on a lot of different areas of the trading stack; often close with researchers learned about technical components for data driven trading saw my impact day to day

Cons

constant office renovations were a bit distracting, but was told it should be done in 2026

3.0
May 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation, collaborative environment. Company also seems to aim to be at forefront of new tech such as AI

Cons

When HR mgmt is on record stating things like the company shouldn’t hire females anymore, it really makes you wonder how they make decisions on who should fill management positions

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