An inside look at the Rotational Development Program (RDP)
The RDP is a year-long training program designed to prepare candidates for their cross-departmental Strategy and Product role. People in the RDP rotate through multiple Jane Street infrastructure and tech teams — including compliance, finance, operations, trading systems, and more.
The work within these rotations ranges from analyzing data and automating processes to resolving bottlenecks in existing workflows and integrating new initiatives into our operational, regulatory, and technical infrastructure.
Hear from Jane Streeters on what to expect from the RDP:
Aditya
How would you describe this program to a friend?
0-60 in all things Jane Street in a few months.
What advice would you give to someone about to start the program?
Ask lots of questions and read everything you can, especially in the beginning. There’s a lot to learn, but the more context you get, the easier it will be to understand the things you learn later on — and you never know when a random thing you read will end up being useful.
What skills have you found most helpful going through the RDP?
It definitely helps to be technically proficient, but beyond that, the program does a good job of adapting to your skill set and your interests in terms of which rotations you do and what work you do in those rotations. Some things that are universally helpful at Jane Street are understanding when you don’t understand something, being able to work on a project without being micromanaged, and having the desire to make things work better, even if just a little bit at a time.
What has surprised you or been unexpected in your experience on the Strategy and Product team or at Jane Street so far?
I really appreciate the amount of space you have to solve problems your own way at Jane Street. There are always resources available to guide you if you get stuck, but for the most part, as long as you’re doing reasonable things, it’s up to you to decide how to approach a project.
Abigail
How did you find out about the program and about Jane Street?
The only thing I knew about Jane Street was that they recruited many traders with math backgrounds. I didn’t want to be a trader, so I didn’t look into the company further. Then, by chance, I came across a Jane Street webinar explaining the Strategy and Product team and the RDP. Out of curiosity, I watched it and quickly got drawn in by how the people hosting the webinar interacted with each other and described the culture as open and collaborative. I filled out my application right away. Happily, after starting work, Jane Street has proven to be even more intellectual and collaborative than I thought.
What advice would you give to someone about to start the RDP?
People are the greatest resource you’ll have during the program. In every rotation, I was amazed by how intentional my mentors were in teaching me and how generous they were with their time and insights.
Other specialists are also great resources. I came to Jane Street with no finance background, and people that started before me continuously explained new concepts to me. I like talking to them about their projects; it helps me understand what they do even if I don’t do a rotation in that group, and I can paint a bigger picture of how the groups at Jane Street fit together.
What has surprised you or been unexpected in your experience on the Strategy and Product team or at Jane Street so far?
An idea that especially resonated with me is not being afraid to admit mistakes. Here at Jane Street, mistakes are not seen as a failure or a testament against your capability but as an opportunity to learn and improve. The sooner a mistake is found and shared, the better. It is very comforting and efficient to work in an environment where you can trust that everyone is open to feedback and will work together to solve a problem.
What kinds of projects did you work on throughout the program?
The types of projects differed based on which team I was in. In some teams, I focused on data analysis, while in others, I was involved with day-to-day surveillance. Common tasks across all teams were standardizing complex legacy systems and writing new programs to make the process more efficient and scalable. Different teams have different needs, so you can find what interests you and where your strengths lie through the rotations.
Davenport
How would you describe this program to a friend?
A constant learning experience where everyone is always talking, brainstorming, and collaborating. Basically, like a more fun version of school.
How did you find out about the program and about Jane Street?
I first heard about Jane Street when I was at school. One of the developers came to a class I was in and talked about OCaml and Jane Street — I remember thinking that it seemed like a super fun place to work. So, Jane Street was always kind of on my radar, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, and it wasn’t until I heard about the RDP from my school’s career services department that I decided to apply!
What advice would you give to someone about to join the RDP?
Ask questions! The more, the better.
Can you describe a project you worked on during the program (how it progressed and what you learned along the way)?
I think a big push in a lot of groups is to help automate manual processes. So, when I was starting in the Compliance group, there was a program we ran to help flag activity we wanted to check manually. In a lot of these checks, we can get false positives, and the more false positives the worse, since this noise can mask potential issues, making it harder for the reviewer. I helped rewrite parts of this script, making it a cleaner and more efficient process.
What skills have you found most helpful in the rotation? What skills have you developed the most since starting?
I think the skill I’ve developed most (something I didn’t even realize I needed to work on!) is communication. So much of what we do relies on clear communication of ideas, frequently between different groups, that being able to tailor what you’re talking about to a specific audience (and sometimes to multiple audiences) is extremely important (and surprisingly hard)!
What were you most eager to put to use at Jane Street that you learned during the program?
Probably one of the coolest things I learned during my time in the RDP was coding in OCaml, which is awesome. I’m in this sweet spot of understanding the business side of Jane Street while also having some of the tools needed to implement a lot of the ideas we come up with.
What has surprised you or been unexpected in your experience on the Strategy and Product team or at Jane Street so far?
When I was looking for a job, I basically wanted two things: I wanted to start work with a cohort of people I could learn with and ask questions of, and I wanted to be in an environment where there was a range of problems. I think the latter hope stemmed from a fear that after a couple months, I might feel bored and disengaged with work. I think what I’ve been most surprised with is just how much this has not happened at Jane Street. I love what I do. There’s so much to learn and so many cool things to do. It sounds corny, but I’m excited to get in every day. Even though this was what I was looking for, I almost can’t believe I found it.