We’d like to tell you how to maximize your opportunities in our three-step recruiting process.

We receive thousands of resumes each year. We review each one and pick the best candidates for a handful of positions.

First, you need to apply. Read the position descriptions carefully, pick out the position you want, and follow the application instructions for your desired position.

To maximize your chances of success, you may also want to supply a custom cover letter. The application instructions will tell you if a cover letter is required, otherwise it is optional. For website applicants, you can submit a cover letter using the “Message” option.

Only a small number of applicants are invited to the second stage: screening interviews. The type of questions asked and the interview process will vary by position.

These interviews will normally include the chance to interview with your potential supervisor and senior management.

A select group of applicants will advance to the third stage, in-house interviews. We aim to hire a high proportion of these talented candidates. Candidates in this elite group will have the opportunity to speak with most of our current staff. Details about these later steps will be tailored to and discussed with each candidate as they move further in the process.

Some interviews will be conducted over the phone. The most important thing you can do to be better prepared for the interview is to maximize the quality of your voice connection. In our evaluation process, you’ll have live conversations with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Generally, we prefer voice calls to video to reduce the chances of introducing visual biases. If you make it harder for your interviewer to hear you or you make it harder on yourself to understand what the interviewer is saying, your interview will go worse than it needs to. You might consider reserving a quiet indoor space or using better equipment.

For applicants for whom the cost of a superior connection alternative (or telecommunications cost in general) is an issue, please let us know and we will try to help.

Your interview will also go somewhat better if you are familiar with the description for the position to which you are applying.

If you do the two things described above (secure a high-quality connection and familiarize yourself with the position description) and follow any application instructions, you will be prepared for the interview.

Apart from this website, there is not much information about Spark available online, and some of it is inaccurate. Spending more time researching the company is unlikely to help you in the interview.

A bad answer to any one question, no matter how easy the question or how bad the response, will not in itself sink your candidacy. Spark assesses each candidate’s entire interview, rather than focusing on random errors. Similarly, in later interview rounds with different interviewers, making a weaker impression on one person will not sink your candidacy.

Potential for longer interviews

Our interviews tend to be lengthy, in part because we interview really fascinating people! A single team member represents 4% of our company. We take the investment in our team, your career, and your future seriously.

Simulated First Day

After we make a full-time offer and before you drop your other processes, we create one more opportunity for both parties to double-check that everything is going to go as expected. You will spend a day in our office working with your future supervisor and co-workers starting on something that you might be asked to do on your actual first day of work. This gives you one last opportunity to check the job, the supervisor, and the work environment. This gives the company one last opportunity to check the fit.

Historically, about 90% of the time this simulated first day results in a signed full-time contract, and no one goes home on the real first day on the job feeling like they made a mistake.

We participate in recruiting on a few campuses each year, and the updated schedule for 2025 is listed below.

• September 25 at Yale
• September 29 at Harvard
• October 2 at MIT
• October 8 at Carnegie Mellon
• October 21 at Princeton

If you’re interested in joining our team but won’t have the opportunity to otherwise meet us, you may apply online.

Paying for production means paying people in relation to the value added they generate for the firm, rather than paying them by their role in the company.

The hard part of paying for production is valuing production. We look at value added and production in the broadest sense. Most people can see that a quant who invents a trading strategy has “produced” if the strategy is successful and does not involve taking excessive or hidden risks. We also value an administrator who helps projects move more quickly, the compliance professional who infuses our culture with propriety, or the recruiter who hires all of those people.

Non-quantitative contributions to the bottom line, while harder to measure, can exceed purely quantitative ones.

Rewards here are based on genuine value added and net production in the aggregate; they are not limited by title, background, or experience.

Spark prefers a smaller number of great employees, paid well for their high production in Spark’s leveraged environment, to a larger number of employees with lower compensation for jobs with more limited scope and impact. Our smaller team gets into new areas faster, which is essential to our success.