This episode of Signals & Threads featured an in-depth discussion with Grace Yang, Jean Van Brezen, and Matt Ells—former Jane Street interns now working full-time at Jane Street—about their internship experiences, transition to full-time roles, and insights into the firm's technical and collaborative culture.
The conversation covered motivations for applying, onboarding, types of intern projects, mentorship, code review process, differences between intern and full-time work, and feedback on internship structure.
The group highlighted Jane Street's ongoing emphasis on real-world project work for interns, collaborative project design, and strong support systems, as well as challenges such as context switching and impostor syndrome.
The episode wrapped up the podcast season with reflections on areas for improvement in the internship program and encouragement for open feedback.
Action Items
(No explicit deadlines or owners were stated in this transcript. No action items were given.)
Jane Street Internship Program Overview
Jane Street's internship is structured to provide exposure to real-world projects, often allowing interns to work on two different teams for broader experience.
Intern onboarding includes a week-long OCaml bootcamp and technical classes to ensure all interns, regardless of prior functional programming experience, can acclimate to the firm's tools and workflows.
Mentors and team members provide continuous guidance, including context for project work and code review, fostering both learning and project success.
The program encourages building community among interns, with social and educational events scheduled throughout the internship.
Recruitment and Motivation
Interns often hear about Jane Street through university functional programming classes, peer recommendations, and outreach programs like Insight for women in STEM.
While functional programming is an attraction for some, most incoming interns now have limited or no prior OCaml experience, and this is not seen as a barrier to success.
Outreach efforts focus on increasing diversity, reaching underrepresented groups, and broadening the recruitment pool beyond a few well-represented schools.
Intern Project Experience
Interns are assigned substantial, impactful projects, often involving critical systems such as trading risk management and internal infrastructure.
Projects are chosen to maximize learning and contribution while balancing the need for manageable scope and real business value.
Mentors often act as effective co-authors through deep code review, allowing interns to tackle challenging projects while maintaining high quality and safety standards.
Transition to Full-Time Roles
The transition from intern to full-time developer at Jane Street is generally smooth; intern responsibilities mirror those of junior full-timers, though full-time roles allow for longer timelines and broader, open-ended project scopes.
Team placement for new full-timers is collaborative, involving discussions with multiple teams and taking prior intern experience and preferences into account.
Former interns highlighted the importance of relationships and personal excitement in choosing their full-time teams.
Collaboration and Communication
Developers at Jane Street frequently collaborate with traders, operations, and infrastructure teams to prioritize, design, and refine features and projects.
Continuous open communication is essential for understanding user needs, balancing short-term feature requests, long-term improvements, and larger architectural changes.
Cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing are common, with formal and informal channels supporting project design and decision-making.
Reflections and Feedback on the Internship Program
Interns appreciated the challenging, substantive nature of their projects, mentorship quality, and the collaborative firm culture.
Suggested areas for improvement included better feedback and encouragement cycles for interns, and more structured scheduling of educational and social events to reduce context switching.
Impressions of remote work were mixed, with some enjoying the increased focus and flexibility, and others missing in-person office dynamics.
Decisions
Continue impactful, real-world intern projects — Jane Street will maintain the approach of giving interns meaningful, production-level work, supported by deep code review and mentorship, as it effectively prepares participants for full-time roles and benefits the company.
Broaden outreach programs — Ongoing commitment to programs like Insight and efforts to reach underrepresented groups, supporting diversity in recruitment.
Open Questions / Follow-Ups
How can Jane Street further improve feedback loops and reassurance for interns, particularly early in the program?
What changes can be made to better structure intern training and social events for optimal focus and onboarding efficiency?
How will remote work adjustments continue to affect mentorship, collaboration, and intern integration in the future?