The application I nearly didn't send

Five years ago, on the last day applications were open, I applied for an internship at IMC's Sydney office. I didn't expect to hear back.

Today I lead the Strategy Development team at IMC’s India office in Mumbai. We build the systems our traders rely on for pricing and analysis, and I lead a team of 16 super-smart engineers.

 

Not knowing

I studied a dual degree in software engineering and mathematics and finished it with no clear idea of what came next. I was sure of two things. I wanted to solve interesting problems, and I wanted to keep learning while I did it.

Research seemed like the obvious answer, so I interned in research roles at big tech and aviation. The problems were as interesting as I'd hoped. What I hadn't thought about was the timelines: many of those projects took five to ten years to move out of development and into use. That frustrated me more than I expected.

A friend mentioned IMC. I knew nothing about finance or trading at the time. What I heard was that they solved really interesting problems and that the people there were smart and nice, which was enough for me to take a look.

 

The last day

So why did I leave it to the last day?

I didn't think I'd get in. I was never the top student in my class, I knew nothing about finance, and I assumed both of those counted against me.

I only realised afterwards that IMC doesn't hire graduates for the skills they have today. It looks for people who are curious and want to take on challenges, and it thinks about where that person could be in two, five or ten years. What matters is whether you can learn and thrive here.

It turned out to be the right fit for me. I learn something new every day, work on problems I find interesting, and see my solutions in production the next day (after research timelines, that took some getting used to).

For instance, we were looking to merge two trading strategies. We discovered performance issues while doing so that could have led to either strategy slowing down by one second – which is a lot.

Overnight, we investigated the issue, found the bug causing the slowdown, and got the fix into production just in time for trading the next day.

 

Sydney to India

I worked on India projects from Sydney with other researchers. India was small and scaling, and it seemed like a growth opportunity for me.

I also saw that I could contribute directly and be present in the room with the traders in the Mumbai office rather than providing remote support.

The Mumbai office is more lively and growing fast, and we became a tight-knit team in no time. Moving to the Mumbai office also accelerated my career. Within a year, I became a manager, and the team under me grew largely.

I love teaching and mentoring, and managing a team helps me do that. I can get the best from my team.

 

The women ahead of me

Plenty of women have done well here. Our incoming COO and former MD of IMC’s US office, Christine, joined IMC 16 years ago and has built an inspiring career.

Across IMC, we know not enough women are applying, and a big part of that is a lack of awareness. You can't apply for a career you've never heard of. Five years ago, I hadn't heard of this one.

WiTT exists to fix that. It shows you what a career in trading actually involves, lets you work out whether it's for you, and gives you a first-hand look at IMC's culture and what it's really like to work here.

If you're reading this and wondering whether you have the right skills or background, I used to wonder the same thing. Don't get caught up on it.

If you're curious and you like solving problems, just apply: https://bit.ly/4ifP4eT