Optiver Software Developer reviews

4.1

79% would recommend to a friend

(84 total reviews)

63% positive business outlook

Software Developer employees have rated Optiver with 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 84 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Developer professionals have an excellent working experience there. Optiver is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Developer professionals compared to other employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

84 reviews
4.0
Sep 3, 2018

Good for starters

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good for starters, you don't need financial market background be employed. The company provides necessary training , good bonus for a good job.

Cons

Technical debt slows down the innovation cycle, you need to be very creative to arrange some time for innovation, lack of system architect and quality assurance.

4.0
Aug 25, 2018

Great if you fit in

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Like the title says, if you fit in to company culture you can do well. The bonuses are great compared to non-finance development jobs. However as a developer you are miles behind the traders in terms of bonuses, so be prepared to be working with youngsters that are on a multiple of your income. One of the great benefits is that there are no external customers, you are only developing solutions for internal use. This has some great upsides - you only work on projects that are really needed and make an immediate difference to the company. You can see your code go straight into production and directly interact with the users to get feedback. The work/life balance is extremely good compared to previous jobs I have had, you aren't really expected to do extra except to be on standby for external dependencies such as exchange upgrades. Usually the internal work is planned well in advance. The company does have a strong moral(!) compass in terms of trading behavior. We try to compete in a fair way with other market participants and although the phrase 'improve the market' is parroted a lot as a mission statement, I do think it is generally true (while trying to make money of course). There is also the cliche of getting to work with a lot of smart people, in this case it is definitely true.

Cons

If you have no interest in trading then you are not going to progress. Think of it is a trading company that also happens to do development. There is always more work than people and a lot of technical debt. There are so many products and markets we are trying to support that it's almost impossible to keep track of. Although the bonus scheme is open and visible, the shares scheme is completely opaque. There is relatively high staff turnover in all departments. The process isn't completely visible but if the company decides one day that they don't want you then they make you an offer to incentivize you to leave. Sometimes people disappear without a word and you wonder what happened because they seemed competent enough. The bonus structure has extremely coarse resolution, it doubles at each level so it makes an enormous difference to overall remuneration. It is not at all clear what the requirements for these levels are, it is completely at the discretion of your direct manager if you progress. The CTO position has been extremely unstable, the tech leadership at this level is constantly in flux. The team leads have been fairly stable despite this though. There is definitely a Dutch bias in the management positions, while progression generally seems to be based on merit, this is an exception.

5.0
May 18, 2018

Continuous Improvement

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've worked at Optiver a long time. Every year it gets better. - The company is managed on the basis of principles and values, not process or politics. - Those principles and values align very nicely with mine: -- Autonomy: there is very little hand-holding and extraordinarily high expectations of individuals in the company. The company rewards those that keep pushing those expectations higher with greater responsibility and authority. -- Collaboration: there are a lot of great fights over the right way to approach a given problem. When we're at our best, everyone in the fight has a strong opinion but is also listening to everyone else and continually re-evaluating that opinion as new information, ideas, and opinions are expressed. -- Prudence: the company carefully evaluates risk/reward trade-offs both when it comes to trading and technology decisions. The latest fads (cryptocurrency, esoteric programming languages, etc) are carefully evaluated, but reckless pursuit of them is frowned upon. I'll end with a sports analogy. Working at Optiver Chicago is like playing for the Patriots or the San Antonio Spurs. It certainly isn't for everyone. But if you like competing for the championship every year and always pushing yourself to be better, there's no better team to join.

Cons

If the company values do not align with yours, you will find it an increasingly frustrating place to work. Honestly, just read the cons from other posts and you can see how that plays out. If you find the principles above strange, out of fashion, or backwards, you'll agree with other people's cons. If you think those principles are refreshing, you will have a hard time coming up with many cons.

Viewing 64 - 66 of 84 Reviews

Glassdoor has 829 Optiver reviews submitted anonymously by Optiver employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Optiver is right for you.