Transcript

GET TO KNOW US | JANE STREET

Hi, my name is Rajan. I work in the London office at Jane Street. I’m part of the IT team here and I joined in 2020.

WHAT DOES THE IT TEAM DO AT JANE STREET ON A DAILY BASIS?

We have a lot of critical systems which are used by pretty much everyone in the firm through some way or another. Maybe it’s not first hand, but maybe they’re interacting with it through another system that they do use on a day-to-day. We manage the tech stack to try and keep people working, to make it flexible for people to work in different scenarios. Some of that takes a form of maybe you have some tooling that makes it easier for people to deploy an app that they’ve developed or written. But then also it could just be like if they had to move to a different machine, it’s just streamlining that process.

WHAT SKILLS HAVE HELPED YOU SUCCEED IN YOUR ROLE AT JANE STREET?

So at school, I actually studied chemistry, so probably not directly related to my job. But there’s a lot of transferable skills in chemistry. So like being able to diagnose problems, being able to think about them, being able to research and find all the missing bits of information about why something happened. And then also just thinking generally why things happen the way they do is very beneficial. I think definitely a lot of the skills around literature were definitely beneficial, just being able to present ideas or finding the key concepts whenever you’re presenting a solution to a problem, about why we need this solution, how much time it is going to save, or what it is fixing. I think communicating ideas is generally very important here.

HOW DOES IT COLLABORATE WITH OTHER TEAMS ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION?

Collaboration between teams like within your own team or even across different teams and departments is very common here at Jane Street, it happens pretty much everyday. There’s no real roadblocks that prevent you from doing any of your work. People are always willing to help. They’re always very transparent. They give you realistic timeframes, they’ll tell you if something’s possible, if it’s not possible.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CULTURE AT JANE STREET?

The culture is definitely very open here at Jane Street. People aren’t afraid to ask questions. People aren’t afraid to admit they don’t know something because it’s a learning experience. And I feel like everyone here really just wants to learn. People are also very inquisitive here as well. People like to understand why things happen and why things are the way they are.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU SHARE WITH A NEW HIRE?

As someone new coming in, I’d say, definitely don’t be afraid to contribute your ideas. Obviously, there’s a learning curve here and you might not be up to speed with everything on your first day. But also, as you see things, you’re seeing it from a different outlook than everyone else who’s been at the firm and experience things for the years that they’ve been here already. So your ideas could be very valuable.

WHAT MAKES WORKING AT JANE STREET UNIQUE?

I think obviously Jane Street has a lot of great perks and benefits. But I think the one thing that stands out is just the people. I mean, the people definitely make the company here. They have really contributed to the culture. People are always willing to help. They’re very intelligent and they drive a lot of the work here, and it makes a lot of the work exciting with the ideas that they bring.