careerladder.fyi › Career paths › Optiver
How people got jobs at Optiver
What 55 people did before they joined Optiver: where they worked, what they studied, which role they came in through, and how long it took.
55
people in our data got there
69%
had a graduate degree first (of those listing one)
11
typical years since first job
- The most common step right before: from other companies (58%).
- The most common way in was Finance & trading (36% joined in that kind of role).
- Of those who list their education, 69% had a graduate degree before arriving and 8% a PhD.
- The typical person arrived about 11 years after their first job.
- The most common earlier employer: Morgan Stanley (9% had worked there).
How Optiver compares
- 69% had a graduate degree, above the 57% across other quant firms, the highest of the 10 in our data.
Among people who list their education; places with at least 10 such people.
Show as a table
| People listing education | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Optiver (this page) | 36 | 69% |
| XTX Markets | 50 | 66% |
| Jump Trading Group | 40 | 62% |
| Citadel Securities | 36 | 61% |
| IMC Trading | 35 | 60% |
| DRW | 24 | 58% |
| Jane Street | 38 | 58% |
| Hudson River Trading | 28 | 46% |
| Tower Research Capital | 31 | 45% |
| Susquehanna International Group | 22 | 36% |
Show as a table
| Median years | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hudson River Trading | 17 yrs | |
| Jump Trading Group | 16 yrs | |
| Citadel Securities | 14 yrs | |
| Jane Street | 12 yrs | |
| Optiver (this page) | 11 yrs | |
| XTX Markets | 10 yrs | |
| Tower Research Capital | 10 yrs | |
| DRW | 8 yrs | |
| IMC Trading | 8 yrs | |
| Susquehanna International Group | 6 yrs |
Which role they joined in
Kinds of role with fewer than 5 people are combined into "All other roles".
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Finance & trading | 20 | 36% |
| All other roles | 28 | 51% |
| Software engineering | 7 | 13% |
What they did right before
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| From other companies | 32 | 58% |
| From banks & Fortune 500 | 14 | 25% |
| Other | 9 | 16% |
Where they worked before
A person can count under more than one employer.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Morgan Stanley | 5 | 9% |
| BlackRock | 5 | 9% |
Education
Among the 36 of 55 people who list their education.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 11 | 31% |
| Master's | 19 | 53% |
| MBA | 3 | 8% |
| PhD | 3 | 8% |
How much experience they had
Among the 54 of 55 people with an earlier job listed.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 2 | 4% |
| 1-3 years | 3 | 6% |
| 3-5 years | 6 | 11% |
| 5-8 years | 10 | 19% |
| 8-12 years | 11 | 20% |
| 12+ years | 22 | 41% |
Where would your path lead?
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Optiver, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Optiver →
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Optiver, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Optiver →
Related
How these numbers are made. From 3k+ public career histories collected for careerladder.fyi (dated jobs, degrees and publications). The collection was built around particular employers, so people who reached well-known tech, AI and finance employers are over-represented: read shares as "among people in this dataset", not as hiring odds. Names are shown only when at least 5 people are behind them; smaller groups are combined into "Other". No individual profile is shown. Updated November 2026.