Major part of the problem is that people running the place as very inexperienced in management, psychology and communication. Here is what is bad about the place:
1. Management is around only because of tenure and closeness to openers. Not because they are great leaders or have great visions or other skills.
2. Copy cat culture. There are no original ideas here. Everything comes from interviewing employees of competitors and then trying to copy it.
3. A lot of dead weight. Bad traders continue to be employed due to closeness with those mentioned in #1.
4. Churn and burn mentality. Those in #1 will hire a lot of fresh grads and those fresh grads will be put through the rigor. Most of them will leave or get fired in a few years and will be replaced by fresh grads. this keeps the cost structure low and those in #1 get to keep their power and seniority because there is no one left to challenge them.
5. Height of hypocrisy at this place. They say at IMC that "the argument wins". What they really mean is that if you "argue" with a select few people or disagree with them you are pretty much out the door. Also they say that they hire the smartest people (based on GPA I would guess). Yet those in #1 would not be hired under the current GPA threshold in place. They say that they are a flat culture but politics and bureaucracy run rampant.
6. Teams of people monitor social media and spread disinformation. Case in point these last two reviews on this site were written by these teams or could be a team of one. They always state the cons to be that the place is too challenging or demanding and that is all. In reality, there is a lot wrong with this place which is common knowledge but is glossed over by these teams of monitors. Read their reviews and you will see how similar they really are to each other.
7. Oft repeated and very true that this is a Dutch company. The Dutch run it and are paid more and given more responsibilities. Deal with it and you will be okay. If you are looking for fairness this is not the place.
8. Strategies are too plain vanilla market making relying purely on speed. Read flash boys and you will get an idea of what they do here. Once the speed advantage is gone, there is nothing left here.
9. There is a blog dedicated to Dutch trading companies. A lot of other issues with IMC are detailed over there. Its closest competitor is Optiver, which does not have a lot of issues detailed. Makes you wonder about this place.
