At our firm, the numbers are similar: $600k TC for new grads ($200k base, $100k minimum first year bonus, $300k signing bonus)

WTF! I am at an HFT firm in Chicago, this is insane. This seems to be a lot like an offer from Radix, or Headland, or maybe Algo Dev at HRT.

There is certainly much variance between the firms, especially the sign-on IME. People I know have turned down HRT core dev for big tech because their offers were unimpressive.

I think an interesting target for comparison with big tech is Jane Street, since their culture and WLB are good, so the main QoL drawbacks of finance don't apply. A new grad will get ~300k at Jane Street, though probably not with this large a sign-on.

This is interesting, didn't know this about HRT Core Dev where offers were below FAANG. My understanding is that core devs are basically the folks who work on all the low latency stuff, so they'd be pretty well.

Jane Street, from what I recall, is 300K (base + bonus) and 125K sign-on, and also it is non-negotiable. No idea what their numbers are like for experienced hires from competitors.

Honestly, that depends on the firm. There are same that do pay very well like this, eg: HRT, Jane Street (they are not an HFT though), Headlands, Radix. Some others like Jump, Optiver the pay varies depending on whether it's front office or back office.

Where I work at, the new grad offers are slightly better than FAANG, but the growth is very good based on performance, we also pay very well to people coming in from a competitor.

> sufficiently senior devs make 7 figures

I can confirm, known firm, manager role, offer was $1,3M full cash.

Could anyone (successfully) apply for such a position with no referral but CV only?

Not sure as the positions were not even public in my personal situation.