unborn dove
Hey everyone, I’m a final-year CS student weighing three grad offers and could use some direct advice.
My long-term goal is to break into quant finance, low-latency systems, or something idrk. My background is primarily in high-performance C++ (I’ve built a FIX protocol simulator and a C++20 trading exchange) and Python/ML (some java).
Here are the offers (UK-based):
Reply (AI Engineer): £35k base + bonus = £41k TC.
Starling Bank / Engine by Starling (Software Engineer): £55k base, no bonus but maybe shares. Potentially on the high-performance card payments team, but it's in Java.
Hawkeye Innovations (C++ / ML Engineer): £36k base + potential bonus.
Which of these sets me up best for my career? Is the C++ experience at Hawkeye worth the massive pay cut, or should I take the money and high-performance Java experience at Starling?