The 20 year-old financial services interns earning $20k a month
If you're applying for an internship in finance, your end-goal will be a high-paying full time job. But you don't necessarily have to wait until you graduate to start earning big money. Among hedge funds and electronic market making firms, all internships pay well, but some pay very well. 🤑
Using salary data from Levels.fyi, we can see that some of the best places in finance for intern salaries are hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and electronic market makers.
Hudson River Trading comes out on top with an average monthly wage of $22,187. Close behind are Citadel (and Citadel Securities) and Jane Street. By a difference of just 20 cents per hour, Jane Street's $20,835 monthly pay narrowly beats Citadel's $20,800. However... when it comes to total compensation, the true victor emerges.
Citadel and Citadel Securities offer the highest paying internships when you account for the total package. There's not only the high salary, but sign-on bonuses, plus premium corporate housing close to their offices (other firms use dorms or pay lump sums). This takes their totals above all rivals.
Hedge fund D.E. Shaw lags behind the front-runners in terms of monthly intern pay, but it's the sign-on bonuses where it excels.
An unexpected inclusion is that of investment bank JPMorgan, which offers better hourly wages than even some hedge funds in Balyasny and Millennium 😱. However, Balyasny has a signing bonus and Millennium allegedly offer overtime at a higher wage for those that want to get started on 90-hour workweeks as fast as possible.
These numbers have not been confirmed by the companies concerned, but the implication is that pay for elite graduates at the top finance firms is rising: last year, Citadel seemed to be paying around $14k a month to interns and Jane Street was thought to be paying $16.5k, but this was minus perks.
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