13 Comments
 
CashCowCitadel's culture has a horrible reputation. I'm surprised positions there would be that highly sought after.

I've heard bad things about the culture, mainly that it's extremely competitive and has a high turnover rate. But it's still a great place to work for a few years, especially if you're an analyst in the ITAP program. You learn a lot, make great money, and citadel is a great name to have on your resume. And you can live EXTREMELY well in Chicago with the money you make there, due to the city's lower cost of living.

 
Best Response

You can say that every major finance firm has a "bad" culture. Moving up is competitive and turnover is high no matter where you are - how many investment banking analysts, consulting analysts, etc. stay after 2 years? Very few. Citadel is not much more competitive. A job there is highly sought after because the pay for new grads is almost double the pay at traditional i-banks, and moving up is more meritocratic and less structured (there are 27-year olds who are desk heads).

As for the original question, Citadel's post-MBA class is very small - I think at max 5 people per year, although that number may have gone up recently. College grads are all either in ITAP or FTAP - ITAP is much smaller, about 3-4 people per year, FTAP has around 12-15.

 
ews09You can say that every major finance firm has a "bad" culture. Moving up is competitive and turnover is high no matter where you are - how many investment banking analysts, consulting analysts, etc. stay after 2 years? Very few. Citadel is not much more competitive. A job there is highly sought after because the pay for new grads is almost double the pay at traditional i-banks, and moving up is more meritocratic and less structured (there are 27-year olds who are desk heads).

As for the original question, Citadel's post-MBA class is very small - I think at max 5 people per year, although that number may have gone up recently. College grads are all either in ITAP or FTAP - ITAP is much smaller, about 3-4 people per year, FTAP has around 12-15.

Insane if the ITAP class is really that small. Citadel probably gets at least 1000 resumes each year for that group. They recruit at all the top undergrads.

 

I think ITAP was larger in past years, but not by much. And FYI, I heard they just got rid of the ITAP program completely, meaning new grad traders are placed into a desk right away without coursework and rotations.

 
ews09I think ITAP was larger in past years, but not by much. And FYI, I heard they just got rid of the ITAP program completely, meaning new grad traders are placed into a desk right away without coursework and rotations.

i heard they got rid of ITAP as well. i guess it's because of the huge losses they took in 2008. the ITAP training was really good; they would bring in professors from kellogg and uchicago business to teach courses.

 

Wow, I thought most people in the business didn't really believe in the theories professors teach, even at top business programs. Guess I was mistaken.

 

Booth gets recruited for the every single major quant funds i.e. AQR, Citadel, RenTech, De Shaw. They have a ridiculous roster for teachers all groundbreaking research such as EMH and CAPM

 

Architecto earum numquam odio amet est temporibus. Id quam omnis consectetur aut autem quas quia. Iusto sed a aut ducimus dolor ipsum sed voluptate. Minima et modi quis repellat harum. Ex ab aut error vitae.

Quis ducimus quia consequuntur rem. Mollitia earum accusantium dolorem accusantium. Ut aut ratione nihil modi est qui. Eaque autem asperiores repellat perspiciatis enim. Vel tempore iusto veniam qui quia sit numquam necessitatibus.

A tempora aut commodi exercitationem alias tenetur. Ea enim rerum consequuntur sapiente. Repellendus perferendis incidunt sed earum. Rem quaerat iure quis aliquam. Quod ut et molestias eius quibusdam hic et. Enim enim fugit qui quo eligendi quis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • AQR Capital Management 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.0%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • Blackstone Group 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Two Sigma Investments 94.9%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 98.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.1%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.1%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $355
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (83) $287
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (76) $193
  • Analysts (235) $177
  • Intern/Summer Associate (29) $145
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (276) $95
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”