Trading firms are surely not hiring for the broad founder-like skill set Anthropic is. Trading firms want narrow extreme technical brilliance.
> founder-like skill set
Successful founder is deeply filtering for very uncommon skills. Effectiveness, grit, decision making, independence, technical plus sales ability.
University is a shit filter in comparison.
The current word is "taste" but even that is way too narrow. Intelligence is close, although usually too academic (hence the VC uni dropout theme).
The other big problem with a independent capable people is that they rarely apply for jobs.
Folks need to stop downvoting this and get back to their job applications ;)
That's not true. It self selects for people who are focused on making money, not for the best software guys. There are for sure some people in that venn diagram who overlap, but it is not that self-intersecting. This is mainly because the best software guys are rather more interested in doing their own thing and hacking on whatever interests them, rather than what their boss wants.
It also only self selects for those who want to work in stressful/long working day environments, rather than those who value stability.
There are plenty of other reasons to acqui-hire, but it is not the only or even the most effective way to hire the strongest engineers