The biggest application news of the fortnight comes from Amazon. On 19 October it posted "Software Development Engineer, Early Career - 2027 (US)", its main new-grad SDE req, at a $128,700 base in eight US cities and $148,100 in Santa Clara, and the posting lists experience with AI-assisted development tools as a basic qualification (amazon.jobs, retrieved 26 October 2026). In the same two weeks Optiver's US summer-2027 quant and software internships came down, Netflix and eBay confirmed cuts of 6% and 9%, and DHS published a final rule and a proposal that both matter to anyone planning on an H-1B.
This edition covers two weeks, 13 to 26 October, because there was no roundup on 19 October.
Applications that opened or closed
| Company | Role | Region | Status / date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | SDE, Early Career – 2027 (US) | 9 US cities | Posted 19 Oct; rolling | amazon.jobs |
| Amazon | SDE, Early Career – 2027 (CAN) | Vancouver | Posted 19 Oct; CA$118,600 | amazon.jobs |
| Netflix | Software Engineer Intern, Summer 2027 | Los Gatos / Los Angeles | Posted 13 Oct | Netflix careers |
| Point72 | 2027 Summer Internship: Software Engineer, plus three research roles | New York | Posted 14 Oct | Greenhouse |
| Point72 | 2028 Academy Investment Analyst Summer Internship | US | Posted 19 Oct | Greenhouse |
| Optiver | Quantitative Intern and Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2027) | Chicago | 404 on 26 Oct | Optiver board |
| Optiver | Quantitative Research Internship (Summer 2028), expressions of interest | Shanghai | Posted 20 Oct | Optiver |
| SIG | Quantitative Trader Internship (Summer 2027) | Bala Cynwyd | "No longer open" | SIG |
| SIG | Discovery Program (trading and strategy development) | New York | Closes 16 Nov | SIG |
| Wise | Software Engineering Intern, Summer 2027 | London | Live 26 Oct | Wise |
Amazon is the one most readers have been waiting for. It is a single req for the whole US cohort, hiring into Seattle, Arlington, Austin, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Madison, Minneapolis and Santa Clara, and it reviews applications on a rolling basis. You need a bachelor's or master's in computer science or a related STEM field, finished or in progress. The posting says nothing about visa sponsorship either way (amazon.jobs, retrieved 26 October 2026). Our New Grad 2027 tracker had noted that the cohort-labelled 2027 req usually lands in early autumn; it landed on 19 October, with a Canadian twin the same day at CA$118,600 in Vancouver.
Netflix posted a summer-2027 software internship the day before its layoff memo. The listing went up on 13 October for students graduating between December 2027 and summer 2028, in Los Gatos or Los Angeles. Netflix gives a market range of $40 to $110 an hour in total compensation for its internships (Netflix careers, retrieved 26 October 2026).
Optiver's US undergraduate seats are gone again. On 20 October our Optiver vs SIG comparison linked to a live Chicago "Quantitative Intern (Summer 2027)" page. On 26 October that page returns 404, and so does the Chicago "Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)" posting we cited on 21 October. Optiver's Greenhouse board still lists US FPGA internships in Chicago and Austin and PhD graduate researcher roles in Chicago, Austin and New York, and nothing else for US students (Optiver Greenhouse board, 26 October 2026). SIG's Bala Cynwyd trading internship page now says the job "is no longer open".
Summer 2028 has already started. Point72 posted its 2028 Academy summer internship on 19 October for students graduating between December 2028 and July 2029: eight weeks, June to August 2028. The posting says the Academy has graduated more than 250 analysts since 2015. Optiver opened expressions of interest for summer-2028 research internships in Shanghai on 20 October, and SIG's Discovery Program, for students graduating in winter 2028 or spring 2029, closes on 16 November. If you are a second-year, this is your cycle, not next year's.
In London, Wise is hiring 10-week software interns for 21 June to 27 August 2027 at a stated gross salary of £40,000, but only candidates who can work in the UK without sponsorship for all 10 weeks may apply (Wise, retrieved 26 October 2026).
Interview and process changes
Amazon wants you to have used AI tools, and to distrust them. Besides the basic qualification, the 2027 posting's duties include "critically validate, verify, and integrate AI-generated code, exercising sound judgement about when to trust AI output." Amazon's 2026-cohort early-career SDE posting for Canada, still live on amazon.jobs, has no AI line in its basic qualifications (amazon.jobs, retrieved 26 October 2026). Expect a recruiter or interviewer to ask how you used an assistant on a project and how you caught its mistakes, and have one resume line that answers it. Applr's Amazon SDE1 mock runs the Leadership Principles behavioural round alongside the coding rounds, which is where a story like that gets tested.
Quant job boards have gone quiet. On 26 October we pulled the Greenhouse feeds of ten firms: Jane Street, Jump, HRT, Optiver, DRW, Five Rings, Point72, Tower, Marshall Wace's intern board and Akuna. Among postings first published between 13 and 26 October, the only US student roles were Point72's four New York summer-2027 internships and its summer-2028 Academy posting. Jane Street's six new postings since 10 October were all experienced hires; its board still carries 24 new-grad and 41 summer-internship postings (Greenhouse, 26 October 2026). The seats that exist now are the seats this cycle has, and they are reviewed on a rolling basis.
CPT-based internships are in court. NAFSA, the Association of American Universities, the Presidents' Alliance and AICUM sued DHS in federal court in Massachusetts on 5 October over August SEVP guidance on Curricular Practical Training. A hearing on a preliminary injunction is set for 6 November (Carnegie Mellon OIE, 8 October 2026). Jackson Lewis summarises the guidance as requiring practical training to be "a required part of the curriculum for all students", which rules out most optional internships and restricts Day 1 CPT (Jackson Lewis, 16 September 2026). The guidance is in force until a court says otherwise.
Comp, layoffs, and expansions
| Company | Cut | Announced | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | About 6%, nearly 1,000 roles | 14 Oct | Product, technology, legal and HR most affected | AP |
| eBay | About 9%, roughly 1,100 roles | 21 Oct | Second round of 2026 after 800 in February | Reuters |
| Electronic Arts | About 400 roles, roughly 3% | 21 Oct | BioWare studio closing, about 50 roles there | Bloomberg via Game Informer |
Netflix confirmed a bigger cut than first reported. Our last roundup carried Puck's 5% figure. The memo from co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos on 14 October put it at about 6%, nearly 1,000 positions, out of roughly 16,000 full-time staff at the end of 2025 (AP via ABC30, 14 October 2026). The internship above is still posted.
eBay is cutting about 9% of its workforce, roughly 1,100 jobs on Reuters' count against 12,300 employees at the end of last year. CEO Jamie Iannone's memo said affected staff would be told within days (Reuters via GV Wire, 21 October 2026). Electronic Arts is cutting about 400 jobs and closing BioWare's Edmonton studio after deciding not to continue early work on the next Mass Effect, according to Bloomberg's reporting and an EA staff letter (Game Informer, 21 October 2026).
None of the three memos mentions campus hiring. If you are mid-process at any of them, ask whether your req is new headcount or a backfill.
Visa and policy
Two DHS rules on 14 October
The first is final. "Removal of Automatic Extensions for Certain Employment Authorization Documents" took effect on 14 October and makes permanent the October 2025 interim rule: EAD renewals filed on or after 30 October 2025 no longer get an automatic extension while pending (Federal Register, 91 FR 65306, 14 October 2026). Mintz says H-4 spouses and adjustment-of-status applicants are the main groups hit, and that F-1 STEM OPT students keep their separate 180-day extension (Mintz, 15 October 2026).
The second is a proposal. DHS wants to remove the rule that tells USCIS officers to defer to a prior approval when they decide an extension of an H-1B, L-1 or other I-129 petition with the same facts (Federal Register, 91 FR 65119, docket USCIS-2026-0529). DHS's own analysis expects the request-for-evidence rate to rise by 2.9 percentage points, or about 6,044 extra RFEs a year across 208,429 affected petitions. Comments close on 13 November. If you join on H-1B in 2027, your first extension would be reviewed from scratch.
The OPT fee: 3,703 comments and counting
Regulations.gov showed 3,703 posted comments on the $70,000 / $30,000 OPT fee proposal on 26 October, 851 of them posted in the previous seven days (Regulations.gov, docket ICEB-2026-0100). The deadline is 9 November.
On campus, the reaction is still "wait". The Battalion reported on 22 October that Texas A&M's international office handles about 2,051 OPT recommendations a year and that students currently pay the $470 filing fee themselves. A Blinn College student planning to transfer there, who asked not to be named, said the proposal would shrink the opportunities open to them. In India, The PIE News found families adding second countries rather than dropping the US; one admissions adviser said they were holding off on firm decisions, and Fresno State's Eddie West said his university could not absorb the fee, so it would likely pass to students or employers (The PIE News, 20 October 2026).
The $100,000 H-1B fee
It is still not being collected. The government's appeal of the Northern California ruling was docketed in the Ninth Circuit on 9 October as Global Nurse Force v. Trump, No. 26-6667 (CourtListener), and the district court holds a case management conference on 27 October (VisaVerge, 25 October 2026). VisaVerge also reported, citing the immigration firm Meltzer Hellrung, that USCIS has begun approving some petitions covered by the fee without payment, though not consistently. The September executive order told the Labor Department to begin reviewing past LCA filings of employers with layoffs by about 18 October; we found no public announcement that the review has started.
UK: the two-year window closes in 66 days
GOV.UK now states the Graduate visa lasts "2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026" and 18 months from 1 January 2027, with three years for PhDs. The application fee is £937 plus a £1,035-a-year health surcharge (GOV.UK, retrieved 26 October 2026). If your course finishes in time to apply in December, applying then buys six more months. Our UK quant visa sponsorship guide covers which London firms hold sponsor licences.
Still pending
| Item | Status on 26 Oct 2026 | Next date |
|---|---|---|
| OPT fee ($70,000 / $30,000) | Proposed; 3,703 comments posted | Comments close 9 Nov |
| CPT guidance | In force; challenged by NAFSA, AAU and others | Injunction hearing 6 Nov |
| H-1B extension deference | Proposed 14 Oct | Comments close 13 Nov |
| $100,000 H-1B fee | Blocked; appeals in First and Ninth Circuits | N.D. Cal. conference 27 Oct |
| EAD automatic extensions | Ended; final rule 14 Oct | None |
| UK Graduate visa | Two years for applications until 31 Dec | 18 months from 1 Jan 2027 |
What to do this week
1. Apply to Amazon's 2027 req now if you graduate in 2027. It is rolling, and every week you wait is a week of interview slots gone. Add one resume line on how you used an AI assistant and checked its output.
2. Cross Optiver's US undergraduate trading and software internships off your list unless FPGA fits you, and move that time to firms still open on the New Grad 2027 tracker. Underclassmen: SIG Discovery closes 16 November and Point72's 2028 Academy is open now.
3. If your summer offer depends on CPT, email your international office this week. Ask whether your programme still qualifies under the August guidance, and what happens if the 6 November hearing goes either way.
4. Comment if it affects you: the OPT fee by 9 November, the extension-deference rule by 13 November. Last roundup's OPT fee breakdown explains what the proposal actually says.
5. UK master's students: plan to apply for the Graduate visa before 31 December if you are eligible by then.
Sources
- Amazon, "Software Development Engineer, Early Career - 2027 (US)", Job ID 10583340, posted 19 Oct 2026, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Amazon, "Software Development Engineer, Early Career - 2027 (CAN)", Job ID 10583004, posted 19 Oct 2026, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Amazon, "Software Development Engineer, Early Career - 2026", Job ID 10502743, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Amazon.jobs search, "Early Career 2027" (posting dates), retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Netflix, "Software Engineer Intern - Summer 2027", posted 13 Oct 2026, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Point72, "2027 Summer Internship – Software Engineer", posted 14 Oct 2026
- Point72, "2028 Point72 Academy Investment Analyst Summer Internship Program - US", posted 19 Oct 2026
- Optiver, Greenhouse job board API (161 postings), retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Optiver, "Quantitative Intern (Summer 2027)", Chicago (returns 404 on 26 Oct 2026)
- Optiver, "Expressions of Interest - Quantitative Research Internship, Bachelor or Master (Summer 2028 - Shanghai)", posted 20 Oct 2026
- Jane Street, Greenhouse job board API (220 postings), retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- SIG, "Quantitative Trader Internship: Summer 2027", Bala Cynwyd ("no longer open"), retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- SIG, "Discovery Program: Quantitative Trading and Quantitative Strategy Development", retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- Wise, "Software Engineering Intern", London, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- AP via ABC30, "Netflix is laying off 6% of its workforce", 14 Oct 2026
- Reuters via GV Wire, "eBay to lay off 9% of workforce in push to simplify operations, internal memo shows", 21 Oct 2026
- Game Informer, "EA is shutting down legendary RPG studio BioWare amid new round of layoffs", 21 Oct 2026
- Federal Register, "Removal of Automatic Extensions for Certain Employment Authorization Documents", 91 FR 65306, 14 Oct 2026
- Mintz, "USCIS Final Rule Ends 540-Day Automatic EAD Extension for Key Categories", 15 Oct 2026
- Federal Register, "Removing Deference to Prior USCIS Determinations of Eligibility", 91 FR 65119, 14 Oct 2026
- Regulations.gov, "Optional Practical Training Fees", docket ICEB-2026-0100, retrieved 26 Oct 2026
- The Battalion, "New proposal requires big payments for international students' career opportunities", 22 Oct 2026
- The PIE News, "US: OPT fee proposal exposes divide in Indian applicants", 20 Oct 2026
- CourtListener, Global Nurse Force v. Trump, Ninth Circuit No. 26-6667, docketed 9 Oct 2026
- VisaVerge, "US Approves H-1B Petitions Without $100,000 Fee Ahead of Premium Processing Deadline", 25 Oct 2026
- f1jobs, "Latest H-1B Visa News, October 2026", status as of 14 Oct 2026
- Carnegie Mellon OIE, "Higher Education Groups File Lawsuit Challenging CPT Changes", 8 Oct 2026
- Jackson Lewis, "Federal Court Blocks DHS F-1, J-1 Fixed-Period Admission Rule; Curricular Practical Training Restrictions Remain", 16 Sep 2026
- GOV.UK, "Graduate visa", retrieved 26 Oct 2026
Frequently asked questions
- When did Amazon open SDE new grad 2027, and what does it pay?
- Amazon posted "Software Development Engineer, Early Career - 2027 (US)" (Job ID 10583340) on 19 October 2026. The listed starting base is $128,700 in Seattle, Arlington, Austin, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Madison and Minneapolis, and $148,100 in Santa Clara (amazon.jobs, retrieved 26 October 2026). Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis, so earlier is better.
- Does Amazon's 2027 new grad posting require AI experience?
- Yes. Its basic qualifications include experience with AI-assisted development tools from coursework or work, and the duties include validating and verifying AI-generated code (amazon.jobs, retrieved 26 October 2026). Amazon's 2026-cohort early-career SDE posting for Canada has no such line in its basic qualifications.
- Are Optiver's summer 2027 US internships still open?
- Not the undergraduate trading or software ones. On 26 October 2026 the Chicago Quantitative Intern (Summer 2027) page and the Chicago Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2027) posting both returned 404, and Optiver's Greenhouse board listed only FPGA internships plus PhD graduate researcher roles in the US (Optiver Greenhouse board, 26 October 2026). Both postings had been live on 20 and 21 October.
- Does the October 2026 EAD final rule affect STEM OPT?
- No. The final rule published on 14 October 2026 ends automatic extensions for EAD renewals filed on or after 30 October 2025, mainly hitting H-4 spouses and green-card (adjustment of status) applicants (Federal Register, 14 October 2026). Mintz notes that STEM OPT students keep a separate 180-day automatic extension (Mintz, 15 October 2026).
- Is the $100,000 H-1B fee being charged right now?
- No. Court orders in Massachusetts and Northern California block it, and the government's appeals are pending in the First and Ninth Circuits; the Ninth Circuit appeal was docketed on 9 October 2026 (CourtListener). VisaVerge reported on 25 October, citing the law firm Meltzer Hellrung, that USCIS has started approving some covered petitions without the payment, although unevenly.