Jane Street and Citadel Securities are the two biggest market makers on earth, and new grads routinely hold offers from both. The firm-level gap is enormous — Jane Street booked $39.6 billion in 2025 net trading revenue to Citadel Securities' $12.2 billion (Bloomberg) — but the first-year pay is nearly identical, so the real decision is culture, interview style, and one contract clause. First, a disambiguation that trips up applicants: this is Citadel Securities, Ken Griffin's market maker, not the Citadel hedge fund — two different companies we pull apart in our Citadel Securities vs Citadel post.
The 30-second verdict
| Jane Street | Citadel Securities | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Global market maker / prop trading firm | Market-making arm of Griffin's empire (separate from the hedge fund) |
| 2025 net trading revenue | $39.6B record (Bloomberg) | $12.2B record (Bloomberg) |
| Grad trader base (NY) | ~$300K flat (Quantt, Tradermath 2026) | ~$225-300K (Quantt 2026) |
| Year-1 total (NY) | ~$400-700K, some 2026 offers near $800K | ~$400-700K, sign-on heavy |
| First filter | Resume read by a human; test often skipped | 50 questions in 12 minutes |
| Core language / stack | OCaml, collaborative desk | Tech-first, systematic market making |
| Non-compete | Reported none | Up to 2 years per employee reviews |
| Expanding in | HK, London (+500 roles planned) | HK, Singapore, Australia (60+ 2026 Asia hires) |
The headline: Jane Street out-earned Citadel Securities roughly three-to-one at the firm level in 2025, yet a new grad trader's first offer looks about the same. What you are really choosing between is how the money is paid and what you sign to get it.
Interviews: speed filter vs conversation
The two loops are almost philosophical opposites, and knowing which you are walking into changes how you prep.
Citadel Securities front-loads raw speed. The process runs four to six rounds over four to five weeks and opens with an online assessment of 50 cognitive questions in 12 minutes — about 14 seconds per question — plus a personality test (Glassdoor, Quantt 2026). Clear that, and you get a recruiter call, two technical rounds on probability and coding, and a Superday of three to five 60-minute interviews that include live market-making simulations and running P&L under sustained time pressure. The OA is the real cull; a lot of strong applicants never reach a human.
Jane Street puts the pressure later and makes it collaborative. The firm often skips the HackerRank-style test entirely — if your resume passes a human read, you go straight to a probability phone screen (Quantt, Glassdoor 2026). Then two to three technical phone rounds, each about an hour on Zoom, an optional 60-90 minute assessment of four to six probability questions, and a Superday of up to five rounds. Jane Street is known for conversation-style interviews where partial credit for good reasoning is genuine and no finance or economics knowledge is tested — they want expected-value thinking and intellectual honesty, not memorized facts.
Practically: for Citadel Securities, drill mental math and arithmetic sprints until 14-second cadence feels normal. For Jane Street, practice talking through probability and market-making games out loud with someone pushing back. Our Citadel QR mock runs the timed-pressure format, and the Jane Street QR mock runs the collaborative probability loop.
Pay: same door, different staircase
At the entry level the New York packages overlap. Jane Street posts a flat $300,000 base — the top of the market, tied with HRT and SIG — while Citadel Securities ranges roughly $225,000-300,000 for graduate quant traders, per 2026 figures from Quantt and Tradermath. Year-one totals land around $400,000-700,000 at both, and some 2026 Jane Street intake reports put packages near $800,000 once sign-on and a guaranteed first bonus are included (Quantvault, Quantt 2026).
The difference is shape. Community write-ups note that a large slice of the Citadel Securities offer is sign-on bonus, while Jane Street carries a higher recurring base and a discretionary bonus tied to how the firm and your desk did. Over a few years the firm-wide revenue gap — $39.6B vs $12.2B — feeds bonus ceilings, so the long-run upside skews toward Jane Street's trajectory. But treat every bonus number as a range, not a promise: both structures are heavily performance-driven and vary by desk.
Culture, structure, and the clause that matters
This is where the firms genuinely diverge, and it is the part offer-holders underweight.
A September 2026 Substack breakdown of onboarding describes Jane Street teaching through "estimation exercises, betting games and mock trading sessions," with new hires on OCaml and no individual P&L pods — you are evaluated on how fast your reasoning becomes useful to the group, not on a personal book. Citadel Securities, by the same account, drops researchers onto "a contained modelling problem using live market data" and frames the work around pricing, execution, and inventory management: production from day one.
The structural fork is the non-compete. Per employee reviews summarized by eFinancialCareers, Citadel Securities imposes non-competes that can run up to two years, sometimes even on junior quant and technical employees; Jane Street is reported not to use them. Those same reviews give Jane Street higher marks on work-life balance and lower turnover, while describing Citadel Securities as more intense and systematic. Read that as community sentiment, not audited fact — but the non-compete itself is a contract term you can ask about directly before signing.
On momentum, both are hiring hard. Citadel Securities added more than 60 people across Asia in 2026, nearly half in Hong Kong, with researchers, engineers, and traders as the focus (Bloomberg, May 2026). Jane Street employs around 3,500 and has signaled it wants roughly 500 more, with Hong Kong and London prominent. And both stayed in the news this month: Citadel Securities announced a research-and-execution joint venture with Wolfe Research on October 2, 2026, while Jane Street spent early October contesting India's SEBI market-manipulation case, which it denies (Bloomberg, October 2026).
Which should you choose?
- You want the clearest long-run comp ceiling and a collaborative seat: Jane Street. The firm-wide revenue and higher recurring base point that way, and there is no non-compete to box you in.
- You thrive on speed and want live-market production fast: Citadel Securities. The 12-minute OA and day-one modelling on live data suit people who like the market in front of them immediately.
- You are on a visa and may need to change sponsors: weigh the Citadel Securities non-compete seriously. A two-year restriction interacts badly with OPT/H-1B timelines where switching employers can be forced on you. Jane Street's lack of one is a real, underrated advantage here.
- You want a Hong Kong or London seat: both are expanding there, but Citadel Securities' 2026 Asia push is the more concrete near-term signal for APAC roles.
- PhD vs undergrad: both hire undergrads into trading. Neither gates trading on a doctorate the way some research tracks do — so pick on culture and location, not degree.
Prepare for both
- Jane Street quant mock interview — the collaborative probability and market-making loop.
- Citadel quant mock interview — the timed-pressure format with live simulations.
- Polish your resume for Citadel — what their screen actually looks for.
- Citadel Securities vs Citadel — so you apply to the right company.
- Jane Street vs Optiver — if European market making is also on your list.
- Track open 2027 roles at both on the New Grad 2027 tracker.
Sources
- Bloomberg, "Jane Street Generates Record $20.5 Billion in Net Trading Revenue Last Year", Apr 2025
- Investing.com (Bloomberg), "Jane Street Group posts record $39.6 billion trading revenue", 2026
- Investing.com (Bloomberg), "Jane Street posts record first quarter with trading revenue of $16.1 billion", 2026
- Bloomberg, "Citadel Securities Nets Record $12 Billion Trading Haul in 2025", Mar 2026
- Bloomberg, "Citadel Securities Added 60 People in Asia, Half in Hong Kong", May 2026
- Quantt, "Citadel & Citadel Securities Interview Process 2026", retrieved Oct 2026
- Quantt, "Jane Street Interview Guide", retrieved Oct 2026
- Tradermath, "Jane Street Salary 2026", retrieved Oct 2026
- eFinancialCareers, "Citadel Securities vs Jane Street", retrieved Oct 2026
- Young & Calculated, "The First 90 Days at Citadel, Jane Street, Millennium and HRT", Sep 2026
- Citadel Securities, News & Insights (Wolfe Research joint venture, Oct 2, 2026)
- Bloomberg, "Jane Street Denies Market Manipulation to India Securities Court", Oct 2026
Frequently asked questions
- Does Jane Street or Citadel Securities pay more for new grad traders?
- At the entry level the New York packages overlap heavily — both land roughly $400K-700K in year-one total comp per 2026 aggregator data. Jane Street posts a flat $300K base; Citadel Securities ranges $225-300K and leans more on a sign-on bonus. The gap at the firm level is wide ($39.6B vs $12.2B 2025 revenue per Bloomberg), but that shows up in later years and in bonus ceilings, not the first-year number.
- Is Citadel Securities harder to get into than Jane Street?
- They filter differently. Citadel Securities front-loads a brutal 50-question, 12-minute online assessment (about 14 seconds per question) before any human sees you. Jane Street often skips the test, screens resumes by hand, and puts the pressure in a collaborative Superday. Neither is 'easier' — Citadel gates on raw speed, Jane Street on reasoning under conversation.
- What is the difference between Citadel Securities and Citadel?
- Citadel Securities is Ken Griffin's market maker — it earns a bid-ask spread making markets. Citadel is his hedge fund, which runs client capital through investment pods. They are separate companies with separate interviews and pay structures; we compare those two in a dedicated post. This article is about the market maker, Citadel Securities, against Jane Street.
- Does Citadel Securities make new grads sign a non-compete?
- Per employee reviews summarized by eFinancialCareers, Citadel Securities imposes non-competes that can run up to two years, sometimes on junior quant and technical staff. Jane Street is reported not to use them. For a visa holder who may need to change sponsors, that restriction is worth weighing before you sign.
- Which is better for an international student?
- Both sponsor work visas and both are expanding in Hong Kong and London (Citadel Securities added 60+ Asia hires in 2026 per Bloomberg; Jane Street is growing toward 500 new roles). The deciding factors for a 留学生 are usually the non-compete (it limits your ability to switch sponsors) and whether you want a US, London, or HK seat — not the day-one salary.