The reason for this preparation plan

This goal is about career growth and finding new challenge. From time to time, we need to seek new challenges to learn new things and become better versions of ourselves. As a Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience, I work for a leading company in the industry and earn within the top 0.1% in my country. I could have stayed content and remained in my current position. However, I believe that when things get comfortable, it’s the perfect time to move forward.

Companies I'd like to go for

  1. Jane Street
  2. Citadel
  3. Two Sigma
  4. Hudson River Trading

Why finances

I’ve gained experience working in different companies and across various areas (product and infrastructure). I believe UI engineering in the finance industry is still in its early stages of development. Many trading tools still rely on outdated software, and companies have only recently begun developing new high-performance web tooling. I see this as an excellent challenge for me, aligning perfectly with my interests in system design and high-performance web applications.

Why making this journal public - "Life is for sharing" (c)

I feel the lack of descriptive stories of how people get a job in the top level companies. I hope this "diary" will help me in structuring my preparation process and, in the end, will serve as a plan for people who also want to choose such a path.

The Plan

Let’s establish the ground-base how we’re going to proceed on the plan and how much time we reserve for it. As with any goals, the timeframe should be finite and expectations should be crystal clear

Execution timeline

The plan is expected to be completed within 3-6 months timeframe based on the workload. The recommended time spend in hours is 2-4 hours daily. That equals to 14-28 hours weekly. I strongly believe that preparing longer than 6 months with high intensity will be hard for sanity, so we’ll need to adjust the pace on the way.

It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon

Personal schedule - Daily routine

Setting up daily routing is extremely important. Motivation helps to start, discipline and habit helps to reach the end. The preparation schedule shouldn’t not consume all your free time, eventually you want to enjoy your spare time and live normal life.

Monday - Friday 📝

06.00 - 06.30 - Get up + Quick Coffee

06.30 - 09.00 - Preparation time


09.20 - 10.00 - Commute + Breakfast

10.00 - 18.30 - Work


19.00 - 20.30 - Gym

20.30 - 22.30 - Spare time

Saturday ☄️

Morning prep:

07.00 - Get up + Quick Coffee

07.00 - 11.00 - Preparation time

11.00 - 22.30 - Spare time


Evening prep:

07.00 - 17.30 - Spare time

17.30 - 21.30 - Preparation time

Sunday 🌅

Day-off

Topics