Optiver reviews

3.7

60% would recommend to a friend

(571 total reviews)

57% positive business outlook

Optiver has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 571 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Optiver employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

571 reviews
1.0
Sep 17, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is above industry average

Cons

Comically political dressed as high performance in all offices, APAC being the worst but Ams/Chicago are not far behind A lot of mediocre people get to the top if they know how to play the game here Prepare to become a wage slave, the team leads and senior traders here have no life and they praise each other for the WLB that they sacrifice

5.0
Sep 26, 2017

Rewarding place to work

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Intelligent and humble coworkers - Great pay - Engineers are promoted and paid based on merit. There is transparency regarding levels (junior, senior status, etc.) and your guess is likely correct about where others are. - With everything in technology and trading constantly changing, there is much room for growth and taking on new responsibilities, even immediately after starting - Everything is solid including culture in general, 401k, massages, breakfast, lunch, snacks, five weeks of vacation shortly after starting (which everyone actually takes), and yearly company trip - Useless meetings are cut short or cut out; there is little opportunity for being bored - Team leads aren’t simply middle managers; they've excelled at the role they are leading - Expectations are extremely consistent: focus on clean, simple solutions, own the stack, grasp the feedback loop of development

Cons

- Making significant changes that affect trading can be stressful, though this is largely mitigated by frequent releases and having a plan if your solution is broken

4.0
May 24, 2024

Former Trader

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Incredibly talented people working in every part of the business. * World class training program and training environment. * Continuous learning as a core principle is embodied by everyone. Iterative improvement over time. * Global diversification of profit pool - shared success as a firm (Although FAR too diplomatic in this approach). *Incredible tooling and application development. *Mastery of trading acumen and performance in the core asset classes. *Opportunities to work across the globe. *Opportunities in various asset classes for longer term growth. *Top tier new offices and facilities. *Rapid early and mid-career growth opportunities for high achievers.

Cons

*Pay has deprecated from top of market to mid-market in US. *Top heavy. So much of profit pool has been diluted away from trading to non-trading or trading management. *Lack of agency to individual PnL. Shockingly low beta to desk or individual performance. *VERY entrenched seniors. *Inertia slowing adaption of new opportunities globally. *Perverse incentive structure for the 'best traders' to become non-trading managers. *A small group of managers are the only voices heard by management. Where they wield all of the power and make all of the decisions.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 571 Reviews

Glassdoor has 820 Optiver reviews submitted anonymously by Optiver employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Optiver is right for you.