Why Jane Street Pays 7x More Than Goldman Sachs

The New Era of Finance: What You Need to Learn to Get Into Jane Street

The Staggering Numbers Behind Jane Street

Hi, I'm TJ (Toshihiko Irisumi), and I am CEO of Alpha Advisors.
After working at Sumitomo Corporation, I earned my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, then joined Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking Division, where I worked on M&A advisory, IPOs, and PE investments.
Over the past 18 years, I've helped more than 80,000 individuals with MBA admissions, undergraduate admissions to top global universities, and international career strategy. In this column, I want to break down one of the most seismic shifts in finance today: the rise of Jane Street.

So what exactly is Jane Street?
It has no corporate headquarters of its own in New York. No CEO. No IPO. Its logo is barely known to the public. And yet, in 2025, Jane Street paid its employees an average of roughly $2.7 million per person. That's the average across all approximately 3,500 employees.

That figure is about 7 times what Goldman Sachs pays per head.

"The highest paying career in finance is Goldman Sachs IBD." "Getting into Goldman is the pinnacle of recruiting."
Many students still believe this. But the assumption that has driven elite university graduates around the world to chase Wall Street banking jobs for over two decades is rapidly becoming outdated.

In this column, based on Bloomberg's May 1, 2026 report, I'll structurally dissect why such an enormous gap has emerged and lay out what students and early career professionals need to learn to break into this new era of finance, drawing on Alpha Advisors's 18+ years of experience in MBA admissions, global university placement, and career advisory.

1. What Bloomberg Reported: A Different Order of Magnitude

Let's start by grounding ourselves in the actual numbers.

The most striking detail is that the total compensation pool more than doubled year over year. This is not a one-off windfall. It signals that the business model itself is scaling with structural leverage. Jane Street has no investment banking arm, no consulting business, and no banking license. It generated these numbers purely through trading.

To sharpen the picture, compare profit per employee across firms:

Jane Street generates roughly 3x more profit per employee than NVIDIA, the dominant force in AI semiconductors and one of the most valuable companies on Earth. This is the gravitational field that is attracting the world's top talent more powerfully than any other institution.

2. Why the 7x Gap Exists: A Structural Analysis

The compensation gap between Goldman Sachs and Jane Street is not about market cycles or bonus trends. It stems from fundamental differences in business model architecture.
Drawing on Alpha Advisors's network of alumni and professionals working across Wall Street and global financial centers, here are five structural factors behind the gap.

◼︎ Factor 1: Electronic Market Making Is a Scalable Business
Jane Street operates as a market maker across virtually every electronic market in the world, spanning equities, corporate bonds, ETFs, and crypto. The critical point is that this business model scales without proportionally adding headcount.

Traditional IBD is labor intensive. Winning a single deal requires pouring in hours from senior bankers, associates, and analysts. Market making, by contrast, is driven by code. Once the algorithms and infrastructure are in place, a 10x increase in trading volume does not require a 10x increase in staff. This directly explains the gap in revenue and profit per employee.

◼︎ Factor 2: Structural Tailwinds from ETF Growth and Bond Market Electronification
Jane Street started with ADR trading in 2000 and moved early into the then nascent ETF market. The rapid electronification of corporate bond trading in the 2020s, along with the expansion of crypto and prediction markets, plays directly to Jane Street's core competencies.

Goldman has invested in electronification too, but it is fighting that battle while carrying the weight of legacy businesses across IBD, private wealth management, and asset management. Concentrating all resources on electronic market making is simply not a structural option for Goldman.

◼︎ Factor 3: A Flat Organization with No CEO
Jane Street has no CEO and no top down command structure. While this looks unusual on the surface, it is an extremely rational design when it comes to decision making speed and distributing incentives to high performing individuals.

Goldman's MD and partner hierarchy channels disproportionate compensation toward the top of the pyramid. Analysts and associates are structurally "taxed" to fund senior pay.
Jane Street, by contrast, operates with traders and researchers functioning as individual contributors (ICs) in a flat structure, where the value each person creates flows directly back to them. This is precisely why the per capita average is so high.

◼︎ Factor 4: Recruiting Mathematicians, Not Bankers
Goldman Sachs IBD has traditionally recruited strong generalists: candidates with polished communication skills, financial modeling ability, and client management instincts. Jane Street is looking for something entirely different. It targets International Math Olympiad and Informatics Olympiad medalists, math and computer science majors from MIT, Harvard, and Penn, and people with deep expertise in probability theory and functional programming (OCaml).

Because the talent pool itself is different, the compensation benchmarks are different too. Jane Street's real competitors for talent are not Goldman or Morgan Stanley. They are OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Citadel Securities. In an era when top AI researchers command annual compensation of $5 million to $50 million or more, attracting the same caliber of minds to trading requires paying accordingly.

◼︎ Factor 5: Proprietary Capital Trading
Most of Goldman's revenue comes from client fees, and post Volcker Rule regulations constrain proprietary trading at banks. Jane Street trades its own private capital, which means that profits are distributed directly between employees and retained earnings. Additionally, Bloomberg has reported that Jane Street's early investment stake in Anthropic has generated substantial mark to market gains, which may further boost the compensation pool.

3. What Is Actually Happening: The Real Meaning of "New Finance"

Stepping back from the specifics, here is the higher level shift underway:

The center of gravity in finance is moving from "selling relationships" to "selling market efficiency through math and code."

In the late 20th century, Wall Street was a world where success was determined by who you knew and how many deals you could originate.
In the 21st century, it is increasingly determined by how good your models are, how low your latency is, and how cleanly you can think in mathematical terms.

This does not mean traditional IBD is disappearing. The global M&A advisory market for 2026 is projected at $3.9 trillion, and it remains enormous.
But the highest compensation in the industry has decisively shifted from traditional IBD to quantitative trading and electronic market making. Students and early career professionals mapping out their futures cannot afford to ignore this reality.

4. What You Need to Learn to Get Into Jane Street

"So what exactly should I be building if I'm serious about targeting Jane Street?" Drawing on Alpha Advisors's 18+ years of placing candidates into top tier firms across Wall Street, the City of London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, here is a realistic roadmap.

① Mathematics: The Single Most Important Skill

Jane Street interviews are built around expected value, combinatorics, probability theory, and game theory. They care less about whether you reach the correct answer and more about how you use hints, how you structure your thinking, and how you reason under uncertainty. This is essentially the Math Olympiad way of thinking.

Specifically:

・High school: Problem sets at the Math Olympiad qualifying level (the "Art of Problem Solving" series is the global standard)
・University: Systematic study of probability, statistics, linear algebra, optimization, and stochastic processes
・Peter Winkler's "Mathematical Puzzles" and other classic texts on combinatorial probability

② Computer Science: Learn It Alongside Math

Jane Street's intern hiring data shows that roughly 67% of admitted candidates studied computer science, and a double major with math is extremely common. Jane Street is one of the very few firms that uses OCaml (a functional programming language) as its internal standard, so demonstrating familiarity with functional programming sends a powerful signal.

Specifically:

・Competitive programming (high ratings on platforms like Codeforces or USACO, ACM-ICPC, etc.)
・Deep command of algorithms and data structures ("Cracking the Coding Interview")
・Implementation proficiency in at least one of: Python, C++, OCaml, or Haskell
・"Real World OCaml" (officially published by Jane Street)

③ University Selection: Target the Feeder Schools

The U.S. universities from which Jane Street has historically hired most heavily include MIT, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, University of Chicago, and CMU.
In the U.K., it's Oxford and Cambridge. Getting into one of these "quant feeder schools" is critically important for entering the recruiting pipeline.

Conversely, direct hires from universities outside these feeder networks are extremely rare. The most realistic path is either enrolling as an undergraduate at a top global university, or completing a master's or PhD at one of these schools after an undergraduate degree at a leading university in your home country.

④ Early Programs: The Window Opens in High School

Jane Street runs some of the earliest talent identification programs in the industry.

・AMP (Academy of Math and Programming): A free, 6 week summer program for high school juniors
・FTTP (First Year Trading and Technology Program): An early engagement program for college freshmen
・FOCUS / IN FOCUS: Early internship pipelines for women and underrepresented groups
・SEE (Software Engineering Experience): An OCaml intensive program for freshmen and sophomores

The takeaway is clear: if you wait until traditional recruiting season to start preparing, you are already behind. The winning strategy is to build a track record in math and CS competitions during high school, and to apply to these programs as soon as you start college.

⑤ English and "Intellectual Stamina"

The English required in quant interviews is fundamentally different from the polished, client facing English valued in IBD interviews. What matters is the ability to articulate your thought process logically, in real time, while engaging in a back and forth dialogue with your interviewer.
The most effective way to develop this skill is through immersive experience in an English speaking academic environment. It is a fundamentally different capability from standardized test scores like TOEFL or IELTS.

5. How Alpha Advisors Can Help You Get There

If you've read this far and thought "this isn't for me," you are exactly the person who should reach out to Alpha Advisors.
The learning roadmap, university strategy, and career planning required to break into Jane Street and the broader quant industry has not been systematically organized anywhere. That is what we do.

Alpha Advisors has spent 18+ years helping more than 80,000 candidates with MBA admissions, undergraduate and graduate placements at top global universities, and international career transitions. We are one of the longest standing and most comprehensive global education and career advisory firms in the world.
Our founder, Toshihiko Irisumi, built his career at Sumitomo Corporation, Goldman Sachs IBD, and the University of Chicago Booth MBA, and brings firsthand knowledge of Wall Street from the inside.
Our Director of Education, Emi Sakashita, gained admission to the University of Tokyo (undergraduate and graduate) and Columbia University's Teachers College, making her one of the most accomplished admissions experts in Japan.

Here are examples of the support we provide:

・For middle and high school students: Strategic planning for boarding school and university admissions in the U.S. and U.K., study design aligned with Math Olympiad and Informatics Olympiad goals, guidance on AP, IB, and A Level course selection
・For university students: Transfer and graduate admissions strategy for MIT, Harvard, Penn, Oxford, and Cambridge; resume and interview preparation for quant prop shops such as Jane Street, Citadel, HRT, and DRW; self assessment to determine whether to pursue quant, IBD, PE, or consulting
・For early career professionals: MBA application strategy (M7, Top 10, top U.K. programs), career redesign targeting Wall Street, the City of London, Singapore, or Hong Kong
・For parents: Long term strategy consultation on which universities and majors best position your child for the future

"I want my child to have a shot at a world like Jane Street." "I want to reimagine my own global career." If either of these resonates with you, the first step is a free career consultation. We're ready when you are.

The Rules of the Game Have Changed

The era when "getting into Goldman Sachs meant you'd won the finance career game" is coming to an end. The new era of finance pays extraordinary premiums to people who can improve market efficiency through math and code.

And the door to that world is not about where you were born. It's about how you choose to learn.

Around the world, there are exceptional math and CS students at top universities who have the raw talent to compete at the highest level. If they find the right information and the right guidance, placing more names from their countries inside Jane Street's 3,500 person roster is far from a pipe dream.

As that guide, Alpha Advisors has walked alongside ambitious individuals for over 18 years. And we'll keep walking.

▼ Book a Free Career Consultation or Free Study Abroad Consultation Here: Alpha Advisors (18+ Years of MBA Admissions, Global University Placement, and International Career Support / 80,000+ Individuals Served)

【Sources】

・Bloomberg, "Jane Street's Pay Pool More Than Doubled to $9.4 Billion in 2025" (May 1, 2026)
・Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg Law (May 2026)
・Jane Street Official Careers Page (janestreet.com)
・eFinancialCareers (Jane Street Intern Hiring Analysis)
・Alpha Advisors Proprietary Analysis

The analysis and views in this column are those of Alpha Advisors and do not represent the official positions of Bloomberg or any other organization mentioned.

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TJ Profile

TJ: Formerly with Sumitomo Corporation, where he worked in the Corporate Accounting Department overseeing budgeting, financial reporting, and performance management for over 800 domestic and overseas group companies, as well as IR (Investor Relations) activities. Selected as the youngest trainee for Sumitomo Corporation of America (New York), where he contributed to the restructuring of a U.S. electric arc furnace steel business invested in by Sumitomo. Later joined the Project Finance Department, where he was engaged in arranging large-scale financings for infrastructure projects in developing countries and financing for Jupiter Telecommunications. Selected as a company-sponsored candidate for overseas MBA programs.

Earned his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Organizational Management. Founder of the University of Chicago Japanese Association. Initiated and executed the school’s first-ever “Japan Trip”, which has since become an annual tradition.

Subsequently joined Goldman Sachs Japan’s Investment Banking Division, where he advised on numerous M&A transactions in the media and consumer sectors, supported capital raising including IPOs, and worked on private equity investments and corporate restructuring assignments.

Selected as one of only six fellows (out of over 200 applicants) for the 4th Entrepreneurial Leadership Program of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), where he received mentorship from leading entrepreneurs including Hideo Sawada, Chairman of H.I.S.

Served as President of the Chicago Booth Alumni Association in Japan (2006–2010). Has guided numerous candidates to admission at top MBA programs (Harvard, Stanford, and other leading schools in the U.S., Europe, and Asia), graduate schools, universities, and boarding schools. Track record of placing students at leading global firms including Mitsubishi Corporation, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Google, Big 4 consulting/FAS, Dentsu, Toyota, MUFG Bank, Nomura Securities, among others.

Renowned for his rigorous one-on-one coaching for TOEFL, GMAT, IELTS, and GRE, with a reputation for pushing candidates to fully complete their preparation. Highly regarded for his ability to design and achieve career and academic goals with unmatched quality and precision. As a result, he is in high demand as an advisor, with numerous requests to work directly under his guidance.