how to get a job at de shaw ?

It is exhilarating and awesome. The onsite interview was most interesting. The prior phone screen was nothing more than your average set of inane questions to make sure you know something other than nothing.

So picture this...

Arrive in NYC and take taxi to hotel. Note with glee that the taxi and hotel are paid for courtesy your future employer (trying to be confident here...). Remark that you are entering an area that you've seen on TV a few hundred times. Right. That's Times Square. Two blocks later. That's the hotel situated in the building right next to the DESRES tower. Awesome.

Preen in hotel and strut next door. Try to keep pace with the Big Apple crowd shuffling past you. Enter the tower and rise to the 3rd from the top floor. Greet the receptionist and grab a cup of coffee or water.

Receive a warm welcome from Strategic Growth and enter your first of 8 hour-long interviews. The first four interviews fly by. Some guys are old, some are young, super young... was he younger than me? Anyway, receive questions from out of every field you could have expected and many more...(What are some questions asked in a D.E. Shaw research interview?) 

After the first four interviews, though you kind of lost track at time. Are you hungry? Yeah... The friendly Strategic Growth people send you to lunch with nice non-interviewers. You get treated to a very fancy, expensive meal. You remark upon how nerdy-cool the people you're eating lunch with are. You enjoy the high-powered business-types in their sharp suits and slick hairdos taking lunch all around you. You feel like you could get used to this.

Return to the office. Friendly smile again from the Strategic Growth person. A good sign. They still like you, and you're on for Act II. Straight into 4 more interviews. Some are more mundane than the earlier ones, some are more stressful. Get notified that you're done for the day, that was your last session. My gosh, have I really done 8 of these!? Anyway, that was fun and I think I used my brain enough for today. Shake hands with all involved. Receive one last business card. Walk out into the... what? it's dark?! Well not really. You turn the corner and Times Square is lighting up the night. What a day. What a night. DESRES is pretty cool. I'm going to bed.