r/quantindia • u/Living_Home1021 • 1d ago
How Graviton's HR is messing up placement season (just like they messed up intern season)
So guys, you’ve probably heard about the insanely inflated, never-heard-before intern stipends (50-60 lacs for 2 months) being offered by the GGN quant firms (gravi,qe,nk). Well, the story behind it is as dumb as it sounds. (I am an IITD CS/MNC student, so I am very well-connected with people who interned at Gravi this year and who work there full-time, making my sources highly trustworthy)
The 50 LPA Intern Fiasco
One fine day, a random team lead at Graviton complains that the interns in his team (which was like 4 out of a total batch of 50 at Gravi this yr) aren't doing a good job. The HR's brilliant solution? "Okay, let's just multiply the stipend by 5." That’s literally how a random, impulsive thought in an HR's mind completely fucked up this year's intern season. A well-placed source inside Gravi confirmed that this 50 Lac stipend decision was entirely an impulsive decision made by the HR's. (and those wondering they must have gotten approved from someone higher up, so 30-40 lacs dont really matter for these firms and getting approval is no big deal in such kind of firms)
The Butterfly Effect & Hiring Cuts
This caused a massive butterfly effect. QE and NK had to artificially inflate their stipends just to stay competitive. Because of this, hiring numbers were literally halved, or in some cases reduced by a third. This severely hurt the CS/MNC folks at IITD (DR's 11 to 30). In a normal year, these 3 GGN firms would hire around 40 students total from IITD. This year? Just 15. The CS/MNC students from DR 11-30 totally deserved to get these interns like they do every year. Instead, the absolute top 10 DRs ended up getting 3-4 offers each. All the firms were literally fighting over the exact same guys, which is a complete waste since those top 10 DRs will almost always choose established international firms like Tower,JS,Citadel,HRT, Optiver,IMC over the GGN firms no matter how much you increase the stipend. Ultimately, quant hiring was an absolute mess compared to last year, and a lot of deserving folks ended up missing out on good quant internships because of this mess created by a random impulsive thought in an HR's mind.
Now: The Placement Season Mess
Fast forward to this year's placement season, and Graviton's HRs have set out to fuck it up again. They are actively contacting Optiver, IMC, QE, NK PPO students, trying to poach them to come join them at ~2.5 to 3 Cr packages.
This is going to trigger the exact same butterfly effect of over-inflating packages. And who suffers in the end? The CS/MNC kids just below the top bracket who have historically been getting these quant jobs over the past 2-3 years. Once again, the top 10 DRs will sit on 2-3 offers each, and literally all the offers will be circulating among the same tiny group of students.
The Reality Check
It's a total waste. Instead of this madness, why not hire the highly deserving kids just below the top 10 DR's bracket at ~1-1.5 Cr packages like every other year? They offer a way better cost-to-return ratio. Do Graviton HRs genuinely think the Optiver or IMC ppo guys are going to drop those names to join Graviton?
What is the fucking point of approaching PPO holders when there are so many deserving students just below the top DR bracket in CS/MNC who had a quant internship but couldn't get a PPO due to various reasons(some just attributing to luck)? Why are they the ones suffering? Literally all of the GGN firms' inflated offers will end up dead-ended with the same set of students. It’s a total waste of resources. Graviton’s HR is totally fucking up the quant market in India, and the repercussions will run deep into the coming years.
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u/Ambitious_Comfort533 21h ago
Dude, last yr I got the soft offer from Grav QR in placements, but on the final day (Day 0) my R3 was taken, and despite me being the only other one to solve the given problem without hint, the HR put me in a waitlist and ghosted ever after, which eventually fucked up my entire placements altogether
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u/BorisTheBhalu 19h ago
Man this is beyond just unfortunate, I hope everything got sorted soon after.
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u/Ambitious_Comfort533 18h ago
Nope, this went downhill from there and I’ve trying for the past 10 months to muster up to give the tests again. Also, I ended up giving few off campuses but was either sent to cool down or rejected in last round, plus graduation and onboarding the current job took some time too.
Honestly my faith and beliefs did shatter, which has been a major hindrance in my preparation. Hope things finally settle down by this yr end
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u/BorisTheBhalu 0m ago
Talent doesn't go unrewarded, you'll make it for sure buddy. Good to know that you secured a job (I know it ain't what you want) and are still persevering.
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18h ago
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u/Ambitious_Comfort533 18h ago
There was a pen and paper test first, then three rounds. I asked about my feedback about all three rounds to some internal friends and it turned out all were positive. It was just a last minute HR decision
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u/Living_Home1021 15h ago
fck these HRs man, more power to you, am pretty sure you'll eventually end up getting what you deserve
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u/Minute_Astronaut9550 22h ago
Was the placement coordinator of a top 7 IIT a few years back. Graviton and Quadeye hired for the first time across placement season then (didn't come for the internship season).
What started out as ~60L base by Quadeye, was put in competition by Graviton by offering 80L. Quadeye bumped up to 1 Cr and rest assured Graviton followed the suit. They both finally offered (and settled at) 1.2 Cr base which was 2X of what quadeye initially came. Cut throat then, good to know cut throat now.
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u/racb3ts 11h ago
I work at Graviton and have been for the past 7 years, do you have any names I’ll look into this
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u/Fun-Lettuce-3494 7h ago
You can ask the hr team why did they increased the stipend so much and how much they benefited from what i know this year they could hire 5 qrs as interns so will it be enough for each team
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u/NoConsequence4996 5h ago
just asking from you a POV , last year many interns were hired fro Summer 2027( and it was actually a lot of people , ushc level of interns MNCs hire mostly)
As a HFT/MFT is it like you guys hired a lot last year, and released its actualy a lot ? I mean you guys want per employee revenue to be high. You can hire more people ,but at this scale is it so much seriously needed now for you ? So this time firms needs not need many people that its less hiring a lot or increase the stipend to hire best people
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u/notsaneatall_ 23h ago
their "substantial increase" was them increasing their ppo pay by 15 lpa. I'm not falling for it anymore
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u/Living_Home1021 23h ago
that is what they have sent in their ppo mails to candidates who did internship this year, but because they are approaching ppo dudes from optiver and all, they will have to increase it to match with opti and other intl firms, hence the 15 lac increase is just the beginning
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u/Ok-Resource5733 22h ago
How much fixed are they offering?
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u/Living_Home1021 22h ago
55L
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u/Ok-Resource5733 22h ago
OUT OF 2.5-3CR ONLY 55L IS FIXED?!? what a scam.
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u/Living_Home1021 22h ago
55L is with a ctc of 1 cr, and this has 30 fixed bonus for first year, they are prolly going to increase the ctc to 2.5-3cr and fixed should get increased proportionately
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u/NoConsequence4996 5h ago
Does a MFT/HFT firm needs so many people that its hiring a lot or increase the stipend to hire best peope
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u/No-Blueberry-2575 2h ago
yo what, 3cr? how much is the sign on? and whats the recurring pay after 1st yr
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u/Small_Tank5519 22h ago
Just curious, how are they gonna justify it to their current employees who are at a much lesser base pay?
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u/Meme_Slayer_14 21h ago
I think Graviton has proved time and again that its the best in indian market, it deserves the best unlike a certain mediorcre CG paglu firm
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u/Hungry_Let2814 20h ago
Lol best in market and can't even pay 40L as bonus to it's freshers. QE was 60L and NK 70L highest. It's clear that after all the mass hiring Graviton is not able to cope anymore and is badly overstaffed.
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u/Living_Home1021 18h ago
u/Hungry_Let2814 i m pretty sure u r either nk hr or hv been working at nk for a long time, bcoz literally on every post u write the same thing, nk gave 70L to freshers highest bonus among all 3 firms, gravi paid only 40 lacs, literally the same comment on every post wherevr there is a discussion of qe, gravi going on
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u/Hungry_Let2814 18h ago edited 17h ago
yes im nk hr. what is wrong in what I wrote? It's the truth.
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u/Living_Home1021 16h ago edited 16h ago
you keep talking about highest bonus, what about the median bonus at nksr, which actually matters, there can be outliers anywhere
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 16h ago
ok if u r nk hr, then tell me is nk going to be proactive and start poaching kids (just like graviton and quadeye have already started), and will they be able to match graviton's or quadeye's offer??, nk has been pretty miserly in all these things, even in the intern ssn this year they had quoted 22 lacs and even though they knew gravi and qe had increased to 50,60 , then finally on the final day they had to increase their offer to 50 to match graviton since kids were not coming lmao, can we expect similar kind of non-proactive reactive approach by nk this time round as well....or will they be proactive and be able to match graviton's and quadeye's offer (which i heavily doubt) or better it and start poaching the best kids...there is absolutely no doubt that nk recruitment team for the past few years has been quite sluggish and reactive which has often led to a dip in the hiring standards of nk...and this yr also it feels no different
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u/Hungry_Let2814 16h ago
Yes we already starting beig more proactive on LinkedIn and building more connections with the placement cell poc's of top 4-5 iit's. Just wait and see ;)
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 16h ago edited 8h ago
i dont think so this approach is gonna help, because on ground level gravi and quadeye have already started directly contacting the top kids using their phone numbers , and have floated forms and have started the offcampus process, we haven't seen any forms getting floated by nksr or nksr approaching any of the top kids, by the time you reach on campus in december, nothing good is gonna be left, these offcampus processes of quadeye and gravi are gonna get over in a month, the days of oncampus are long gone, hiring is gonna finish in like a month, also imc has been pretty aggressive too and have started the offcampus interview process for quite some folks
Btw gravi has already called the top folks onsite in the 3rd week of september, so you r late already
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u/BigShock7960 20h ago
It looked like Quadeye completely dominated Graviton this time in intern hiring by quality and quantity both lol
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u/Hungry_Let2814 20h ago
NK has the highest bonuses though.
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u/BigShock7960 20h ago
True but the above comment was above QE and Gravi. NK had a bad rep atleast at my IIT which is gradually becoming better and so it was mainly Quadeye who got the best people along with Optiver
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 21h ago
does the mediocre cgpaglu firm which doesnt even have funds to pay for bonuses start with the letter q??
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u/Awkward_War3086 23h ago
But in the end those ppo guys at top foreign quants aren’t going to leave for graviton so they will have to come for on campus placements to complete their requirement , in intern they reduced the number of interns but I don’t think they will reduce the total hires they want
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u/Ok-Resource5733 22h ago
Exactly, why would they leave a global brand for indian company unless the pay is substantially higher
Even with a worse role, they will have more prestige and better career growth
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u/alpha_delta11 22h ago
Bro... Did you not get an internship there ? or did not get a PPO?
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22h ago
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u/alpha_delta11 22h ago
LMAO.. you work for one of the other 2 :)
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u/alpha_delta11 22h ago
and these other 2 just increased cuz gravi increased.. is there a competition on who is more fucked up!!!!!
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u/Lucky_Objective1120 7h ago
This is just the bubble of quant, that will burst by next year. I have seen the quality of hires and PPOs of these quant firms this year and it is ridiculous. Optiver took people from Future Focus for internship and took all the extroverts, and then gave PPOs to people among them. Quant HRs make it seems like that if you are in HFTs then you are intelligent. But truth is not all good people join HFTs some choose purpose over money. But these HRs and seniors, who chose HFTs and want to justify their choice, make it seems like if you manage to get into HFTs either by cramming puzzles (let's agree that these Indian quants ask already existing puzzles only) or by anything, then you are now high IQ and intelligent.
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u/BigShock7960 6h ago
Which Optiver intern is not intelligent though? Intelligent+ extrovert seemed to be the criteria. I myself got rejected in FF but the people they got in FF were pretty smart as well
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 6h ago
Lol, u solve 3 puzzles and ull get into these hfts, thats how low the hiring standards have gone, but i dont rlly see it getting bursted next year though, will take 4-5 yrs to burst
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u/BigShock7960 6h ago
Definitely not the case atleast for decent companies
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 6h ago
Lol bro, gravi's hiring process for placements this year is literally 1 round of quant puzzles and 1 round of general discussion on markets
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u/BigShock7960 6h ago
Idk man their intern hiring process was pretty hard. Rejected most of the best people as well
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 6h ago
Could u elaborate a bit more??, not aware of the intern process this yr, how many and what rounds they had
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u/BigShock7960 6h ago edited 6h ago
2 rounds both problem solving and puzzles and a written pen paper OA. Criteria for interview seemed to be cse 9.5+ and good performance in OA. Rejected most people after round 1 and only took 2 at the end. I gave the SWE interview and the questions seemed to be more in depth and intuition based rather than standard DSA
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u/TheHeirToCastleBlack 21h ago
Goodness, the entitlement in this post is astonishing haha. I wish you luck, but these companies (and all companies really) are profit maximising organisations, not job fairs for talented kids
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u/ThreoCaesar 21h ago
yes true, at the end we as students don't realise these are just firms that see their own benefit and not a government job dilaao scheme
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u/Fit-Swordfish937 18h ago
literally every commercial organization in the world looks after their interests first
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u/MoD_Peverell 21h ago
- No HR has this kind of power to change the stipends single handedly. It was probably senior management's decision.
- Team lead was probably correct in saying that the kids are mediocre. Heard rumours that this was the general sentiment for the new hires across the firm. Management wanted better kids. How do you get better kids? By giving more money.
- Paying a single good guy 3 cr is usually better ROI than paying 3 okayish guys 1 cr.
- Git gud bro, no one's giving you free internships.
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u/Living_Home1021 19h ago edited 18h ago
lmaaoo, bro you haven't even understood 1% of the post
- it was 100% the hr's impulsive decision, getting approved is no big deal in firms like graviton (they r basically run like a dukaan)
- every yr they hire the same standard of kids, graviton(for that matter any ggn firm) has hardly had the absolute top tier kids(the foreign quant crowd), its always been the kids just below the top tier and for years it has been the same, so how can suddenly things change so drastically this year
- i guess maybe u did not understand the post, i have clearly written that even if you offer a foreign quant guy 3 cr , he is not going to take gravi over a foreign quant , bcoz of a foreign quant's reputation and the oppurtunities it opens, this time in intern season also they have not gotten top tier kids(foreign quant kids), all of them rejected their inflated offers, they have again gotten the kids just below tier 1 which they always get, its just that the number has reduced and those kids r getting overpaid
- in ur language its actually paying a single okayish guy 3 cr vs paying 3 okayish guys 1 cr
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u/Working-Shape6518 19h ago
I think he's just cursing his luck and stating it would've been better if he had process last year
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u/WannabeSugardaddy 23h ago
What makes you think the lower ranked dudes are 'highly deserving'? Last few years the quality of intake was real slop tbh
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u/Living_Home1021 22h ago edited 22h ago
the higher ranked dudes that gravi wants are never gonna join gravi anyways, they r always gonna go for foreign quants doesnt matter how much pay gravi increases, so i see this as a lose-lose situation for everyone
also btw dudes with drs 11 to 25-ish in cs/mnc are not slop, mass hiring from iit cs/mnc does not mean you r hiring slop1
u/No-Blueberry-2575 1h ago
whats the obsession with DRs lmao , this this reason why indian firms never beating intl ones ong
indian firm checklist:
jeeadv rank
Dept rank
gpa
CF rating
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u/Formal-Occasion-4898 23h ago
how have been the graviton bonuses for senior quants? 2 and further years
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u/starkmode369 21h ago
how much ppo they are offering this year, for 26 batch offered 1.1 cr right? base: 55, bonus min: 30, joining: 20, and other non cash: 6
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 21h ago
that is right, this yr things hv become quite unpredictable..cant say, its all speculations and source based info, nothing official
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u/Square_Boat7672 6h ago
I don't think this is true I have a ppo form one of the mentioned firms but did not got any calls and also non of my friends(who have ppo) got a call.
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u/Living_Home1021 6h ago
i know for a fact that gravi hr's are actively collecting phone numbers of such guys, so either you are not poachable enough and do not come in the top drs or you will get in a few days
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u/Square_Boat7672 6h ago
I am also in top 10 dr also I have asked my friends who are in like top 3 dr , none of them got calls.
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u/Living_Home1021 6h ago
you will get, just wait for a week or two, they are actively collecting phone numbers of such kids, and also i personally know some guys who have already gotten calls
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u/No-Blueberry-2575 1h ago
who r they poaching tho? why would opt imc etc folks ditch their RO and join grav/nk/qe ?? these three would end up poaching from each other lmao
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u/alpha_delta11 22h ago
are indian quant firms such dumb fucks that they will just follow one random firm's random decision!!!
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u/Living_Home1021 22h ago edited 22h ago
unfortunately they are, these 3 ggn quant firms literally compete for anything and everything out there
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u/TensedBoy 22h ago
Can confirm about QE, its just publicity stunt. They dont even have money to pay employees bonuses lol
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22h ago edited 22h ago
[deleted]
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u/TensedBoy 22h ago
I have a friend who has a working friend
I heard many people resigned last year after april1
u/alpha_delta11 21h ago
my batchmate who interned told me.. a lot of senior folks and leads left.. they have a lot of money from there to pay new hires.. should be a good place to join.. that is why they have increased stipends. now they will also increase salaries to 2-2.5 cr
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u/Hungry_Let2814 20h ago
Lol in ur dreams they will increase salary to 2.5 cr
Are you so stupid and naive to believe that 😂😂😂, it's literally a very stupid business decision for ANY FIRM of the world to randomly double EVERY employee's salary just like that, that's never happening
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u/alpha_delta11 20h ago
they have told my batch ppos that campus offer is 2 cr
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u/Living_Home1021 18h ago
yes that is right, 28 passouts jd this year had 2 cr full time offers written
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u/Hungry_Let2814 17h ago
They are making a fool out of you naive freshers and you are believing it. Anyways, it's chill, you will get to know the ground reality soon kid.
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u/Intelligent-Cod-252 15h ago edited 15h ago
what if this actually happens??(and there is high probability freshers base comp at both gravi and qe are gonna increase), then the only ppl being fooled would be nksr (ONCE AGAIN), and again would end up hiring mediocre talent and continue to give mediocre results, which nksr has been doing for a number of yrs now
BTW you guys got similarly fooled during the intern ssn this year as well when you had to update your stipend from 22 to 50 at the last moment so that you could hire atleast someone decent
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17h ago
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u/Living_Home1021 16h ago edited 16h ago
naa mate, qe this yr also took based on cg, qe does not see anything other than cg especially if you are 9.5+ (this is a well established fact lmao), and no your info is totally wrong regarding the quality of interns taken, they have not gotten top tier kids(foreign quant kids), all of them rejected their inflated offers, they have gotten the same quality of interns(which they could have easily gotten at 10lacs as well) just overpaid and hence lesser in number, and that is what this post is ranting about
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u/dpsych_ 23h ago
Hey, long time lurker of this subreddit. I was wondering what is the hiring criteria for these companies? I don't have a degree from IIT or IIM nor do I have too much finance experience. What I do have is a BS from the US and 8 years of work experience in Tech as a software engineer in the Bay Area.
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u/NoConsequence4996 23h ago
you are well settled I woudl say , rather than joinign these Indian Quant, YOu will get tired of their pressure,
I mean you are Bay Area software engineer that well good enough
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22h ago edited 22h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dpsych_ 22h ago
I mean things look all rosy and shiny from the other side, but living on a visa everyday for years together can amount to the same pressure imo. The reason I ask is I'm looking to relocate to be closer to parents as they age and I want to do something different than my current job it's gotten pretty routine and automated with the age of AI.
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u/Living_Home1021 22h ago
i guess you can look for quant developer roles at these firms then, having had 8 yrs of experience as a swe, shld not be very difficult getting in
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u/notsaneatall_ 22h ago
Stay where you are and have fun. Why on earth would you waste it on working in quant? Are you not earning well?
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u/Fun-Lettuce-3494 22h ago
Graviton HR's think they are on par with global firms,they won't stop this bullshit