Optiver reviews

3.8

62% would recommend to a friend

(575 total reviews)

62% positive business outlook

Optiver has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 575 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Optiver employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

575 reviews
1.0
Jan 7, 2024

Toxic management

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company will throw money and benefits at you with one hand...

Cons

Very poor lower and middle management in IT. Team managers do nothing to support or build up the people they own. They dominate over every decision then use them to scapegoat their own failures. Every thought and action is aimed at their next review and promotion. There is no attempt to shield engineers from management games. Managers are inexperienced technically in the field they are assigned to lead and have no management experience outside of what they pick up from their time at Optiver which teaches only confidence and personal review padding above all and at all costs. They are unable to utilise their people, and chose to dominate over them instead, leading to poor outcomes capped by their own outdated or non-existent abilities. Optiver spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year trying to keep people happy, yet they did so poorly at best places to work survey they pulled out and no longer participate. If they stopped paying the bonuses no-one would turn up the next day other than the management who would not get a job anywhere else. The people are great, but overall the effect of the toxic management will leave you looking back at your time at Optiver as the worst experience of your career. Make your money and get out before you absorb anything from this environment. Johann Kaemingk, IT management at Optiver APAC are screwing you, handing high paying jobs to their friends who have no ability to do they work and are a drag on the company. Review the management team and their qualifications for the positions they hold. Being around for a long time is not a qualification.

2.0
Feb 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really friendly and smart people. The food is fantastic.

Cons

- Extremely high standards. I understand that trading firms always want to attract extremely smart people. But the standard settings here are not for hard-working smart people, they are for intelligent smart people(geniuses). In other words, to meet those requirements, long working hours and always pushing oneself every day is inevitable . - Peer review for the bonus. It will be taken as a waste of time if ask others for help and colleagues will give help. Since the project assigned to each one is "autonomy", employees here won't be evaluated by how much they help others, but only by the outcome of their own project, which is not helpful to the growth of technical skills in the long term. - Cultural fit. There is hardly anyone asking about your weekend plan, let alone your life plans. People working here only care about working efficiency and how much they can earn every year etc. What's more, people here are quite ego with their "prestige", which makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes.

1.0
Jun 24, 2019

Declining Culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big Bonus and good pay

Cons

The reviews are often a surprise. Team Leads are determining the scores together with their peers, top down. The story leading to the score is compiled after the score is determined. Lot's of competition. Your score is relative to the others, so a good score now, can be a not so good score next year. Because of the relative high pay, employees will tolerate quite much. My Team Lead got a new manager and within a few months my core went from an above average to a below average. Lot's of politics. Be sure you are 'friends' with the right people and you will be fine.

Viewing 190 - 192 of 575 Reviews

Glassdoor has 826 Optiver reviews submitted anonymously by Optiver employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Optiver is right for you.