I applied online through the website, and was contacted the next day by a recruiter. She scheduled for me to have a Skype interview with a recruiter in Austin, Texas. The Skype interview was fairly standard, a little bit of "tell me about yourself", and then two brainteaser/quantitative questions. I was able to answer both easily, although I kept making arithmetic errors on one of them. He told me a little bit about the company and did mention that a 60 hour work week was standard (7-7), and to expect to stay an hour or so late during my first 12-18 months. It was also explained that being a Trading Operations Analyst is different from a trader, and that Virtu does not hire college grads as traders. They instead want people to understand how the trading systems work as a member of the operations team, and that if it is the right fit, hires can move into trading within a year.
After the Skype interview, I was invited for an on-site in New York because I live on the East Coast. It opened with a paper and pencil IQ test, followed by three brainteaser interviews with folks in Operations/Trading. None of the questions were particularly difficult, although I did struggle with one of them, and it took me a good amount of time to come up with an algorithm to solve it. There was lunch in the middle, followed by a final "culture" interview with one of the senior managers. He didn't ask any technical questions, but did ask me about my background, including my undergrad, hobbies, and family (nothing too personal). He explained that culture was incredibly important at Virtu, and that Virtu is the experiment of the founder, and they want to keep the ship tight. From these interviews I got the sense that everyone at Virtu absolutely loves working there: it is really a happy family and later a manager told me that the company would "fall on a grenade" for me if needed. I was incredibly impressed with how dedicated and well treated everyone in the firm was, from the recruiters to the traders.
I was then flown to Austin for another series of interviews. It was essentially the same thing, and the Austin office is nice! For example, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all provided by the firm. There is an on-site gym, and there is a lot of office space. It is a little bit outside of the downtown, in a suburban area, so having a car would be a necessity. Here, I reconfirmed that Virtu is a big happy family, and that everyone from the front desk to the operations team is dedicated to finding new ways to add value to the firm. I did struggle on a very easy brainteaser (with the head of the office, no less), but did very well on the remaining interviews. It consisted of maybe five technical interviews and a lunch break.
I was then informed that the last stage of the process was to meet with the CEO of the firm in New York. I headed up to New York to meet with him (no scheduled time, so I had to wait a few minutes). Ahead of our meeting, I talked with a few folks in upper management again about culture. Here, I was asked if I would be ready to accept an offer that day. I answered that I would need some time to make sure I had all of my information, and was told that that was a "culture red flag". He asked what my hesitation would be, and I said that I wanted to have all of my information present before making a decision. He pressed harder, and told me that if I was going to pit offers against each other, I wasn't wanted at the firm. I affirmed truthfully that money wasn't the concern, but that moving to Austin from the East Coast was an obstacle. He recognized that as a legitimate excuse, but warned me that if I made the same comment to the CEO, I would be shown the door. I agreed to be honest with the CEO and tell him that I would be excited to see an offer if shown one (which was true).
The CEO meeting was actually uneventful, though he is a cool guy. I won't say more except that I wasn't asked about taking an offer. I received an offer on the train ride home from the meeting.
During the week after receiving the offer, I frantically tried to get other trading firms to make final decisions, because I had no other offers at the time. I was able to procure an offer from Jane Street later in the week, and it was then that I decided to take Jane Street over Virtu.
