Phase 4 Months 19 – 24

Polish &
Acquire

Consolidation, portfolio finalisation, open source, networking, and a sequenced application strategy. By month 24 you should have received at least one offer. The work is 80% done — this phase is about converting skill into opportunity.

01Knowledge Consolidation
Fill gaps, review all core areas 5 areas ▲
  • C++ reviewGo back through Effective Modern C++. Revisit your lock-free implementations. Anything you implemented but couldn't fully explain — fix that now.
  • OS reviewContext switching, scheduling, virtual memory, interrupts, kernel parameters. Can you answer these verbally in 2 minutes each? If not, practice.
  • Networking reviewTCP vs UDP, socket buffers, Nagle, multicast, kernel bypass. Draw the path of a packet from NIC to your application.
  • Concurrency reviewMutex vs spinlock, condition variable, atomic, memory ordering. Implement a seqlock from scratch as a final test.
  • Fill gaps from mock interview feedbackEvery mock interview reveals something. Spend time on the specific weak spots surfaced by real interviewers, not generic study.
02Portfolio Finalisation
Make it hireable, not just working 6 tasks ▲
  • Add performance benchmarks with visualisationsLatency histograms, throughput vs load curves. Use gnuplot or a simple Python script to generate charts. Embed them in your README.
  • Add architecture diagramsA diagram of your system: components, data flows, queue types, threading model. A recruiter should understand the system in 30 seconds from the diagram.
  • Add comprehensive documentationEvery public interface documented. Design decisions explained. Known limitations noted. This signals engineering maturity.
  • Add unit and integration testsCorrectness tests for matching logic. Stress tests for lock-free queues (run for 60 seconds under load with sanitizers enabled). Show the test results in CI.
  • Write a technical blog post: design decisionsWhy did you choose a ring buffer over a linked list? Why SPSC over MPSC? What trade-offs did you make? Publishing this demonstrates depth and communication ability.
  • Write a technical blog post: performance optimisationsBefore/after measurements. What you profiled. What you changed. What the numbers showed. Concrete and specific.
The portfolio is your interview before the interview. A senior engineer at Optiver will look at your GitHub before they meet you. Make it look like the work of someone who cares deeply about correctness and performance.
03Open-Source Contributions
2–3 meaningful pull requests 3 areas ▲
  • Contribute to networking or low-latency librariesFix a bug, improve documentation, add a benchmark. Even small contributions to real projects carry more weight than personal projects.
  • Contribute to trading system open sourcecedwies/low-latency-trading, or similar. Review the code, find an improvement, submit a PR.
  • Contribute to performance toolsGoogle Benchmark, folly, or similar. This signals that you understand the tooling ecosystem.
Open source contributions demonstrate production-quality code under review. They also give you something concrete to point to: "I contributed X to Y project." For FAANG this is valuable; for quant firms it shows engagement with the community.
04Application Strategy

Sequencing matters. Apply to calibration targets first, reach targets second. Do not apply to your top choice before you have had at least one real interview experience elsewhere.

1
Update LinkedIn and GitHub
WBD performance win on the CV. Order book project featured. Skills updated to reflect your actual C++ depth. LinkedIn headline: "Software Engineer — Low-Latency Systems | C++ | Distributed"
Month 19
2
Apply to IMC Trading (Amsterdam)
Slightly more accessible at mid-level than Optiver. Use this as your calibration round. Regardless of outcome, you get a real sense of the bar. Review the TraderMath IMC guide before applying.
Month 20–21
3
Apply to Optiver (Amsterdam)
The crown jewel — Amsterdam HQ, one of the best quant employers globally. Apply after IMC experience. Review their published interview tips carefully.
Month 21–22
4
Apply to Google Amsterdam + Flow Traders
Google requires FAANG-style prep (system design + LeetCode). Flow Traders is a strong quant firm with Amsterdam presence. Apply in parallel with Optiver.
Month 21–22
5
Apply to Booking.com and Adyen (safety net)
Do not neglect these. Both are genuinely excellent engineering environments with strong compensation. Booking.com in particular has FAANG-level eng culture in Amsterdam. Apply in parallel, not as afterthoughts.
Month 21–23
6
Attend quant/fintech meetups in Amsterdam
Amsterdam has an active quant community. QF Amsterdam, CFA Society Netherlands, firm-specific events. Referrals bypass the CV filter at Optiver/IMC.
Month 19 onwards
05Final Interview Preparation
Execution mode — simulate the real thing 4 habits ▲
  • Daily timed coding practiceTwo problems, 25 minutes each, no reference. This is execution mode — not learning mode. You are sharpening what you already know.
  • Mock system design interviews weeklyUse interviewing.io. Find a partner doing the same prep. For FAANG: design a search service (you have real experience here), a rate limiter, a distributed cache. For quant: design a market data handler, a risk engine.
  • Behavioural STAR storiesPrepare 5 stories: ownership (the WBD perf win), technical disagreement, system design decision, learning from failure, mentorship or collaboration. Write them down. Practise saying them in 2 minutes.
  • Whiteboard your order book from memorySit at a whiteboard (or blank paper) and draw the full system. Explain every design decision. Time yourself. This is a real interview format at Optiver.
06Compensation — Netherlands, mid-level
Company Base Variable Total (est.) vs. today (€95k) Target
Optiver / IMC €90 – 120k 50–150% base, profit share €150 – 250k+
strong year		 +76 – 194% Stretch
Flow Traders €80 – 110k 40–120% base, profit share €120 – 220k+ +58 – 165% Stretch
Google Amsterdam €100 – 130k RSUs + 15% bonus €140 – 200k +65 – 135% Stretch
Booking.com €80 – 105k RSUs + ~15% €100 – 140k +18 – 65% Likely
Adyen €85 – 110k 10–15% bonus €95 – 125k +12 – 47% Achievable now
WBD (today) €85k 12% bonus ~€95k total — —

Note: quant bonus figures are volatile — profit share depends on firm performance. Optiver had exceptional 2022–23 and softer 2024. A weak market year can mean 20–30% bonus rather than 100%+. That variance is the trade-off versus Google's predictable RSU vesting schedule.

Milestone — End of Month 24

You should have: Submitted applications to at least 4 target companies. Completed at least 2 full on-site interview loops. A fully documented, benchmarked portfolio with 2 published blog posts. 400+ DSA problems. An updated CV with the WBD performance win, the order book project, and all relevant C++ depth. By this point, with consistent execution, the probability of at least one offer is 85–95%.

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