Employee Profiles

Before taking a permanent assignment, generalists in the Associates Program rotate through a series of positions across the firm with the aim of developing a broad perspective on the business. In the course of my first year, my responsibilities included building valuation models for international private equity and real estate investments, drafting portions of the firm’s risk manual, and researching fixed income trading ideas. I’ve since gone on to develop a plan to overhaul the firm’s intranet system and coordinate firmwide initiatives to measure and reduce our environmental impact.

The structure of the Associates Program matched my interests, providing an opportunity to gain broad exposure to a range of financial markets, and I was impressed with the D. E. Shaw group’s recruiting process. I was surprised to find that my transcript filled with humanities courses and my list of internships outside the financial sector were considered appealing qualities, not liabilities. While interviewing, I made it clear that I was looking for no more than a two- to three-year commitment, effectively an interlude between college and graduate school. Now that I’m here, I’m not so sure. One thing I’ve discovered while rotating through diverse business units is that there are often interesting things to do in unexpected places, so I’m open to a variety of roles. In the long run, graduate school is still an option, but I find that I’ve become increasingly invested in the work that I do and the people I’ve met here.

The quality of the work environment. The firm strongly promotes an ethos of collaboration and mutual respect, and our hiring philosophy is designed with this goal in mind. While interviewing candidates, we certainly look for intelligence and achievement, but integrity and humility are equally important. To a great extent, our office is non-hierarchical, which has the dual effect of providing substantial opportunities for junior people and eliminating unproductive levels of bureaucracy. Our culture creates a dynamic and collegial environment that combines some of the best characteristics of academia and the corporate world. Our Super Pantry filled with free snacks is pretty nice, too.