Golden Tips for IBKR’s Technical Internship Applicants

What does it take to win a coveted seat in IBKR’s highly competitive technical internship program? In this podcast, our listeners will want to take notes, as Gee Vats, IBKR’s team lead in technical recruitment, details – not only the criteria needed for acceptance into the program – but also the many memorable experiences our interns take away with them long after their internship ends.

Summary – Cents of Security Ep. 20

The following is a summary of a live audio recording and may contain errors in spelling or grammar. Although IBKR has edited for clarity no material changes have been made.

Steven Levine

Hello, and welcome to IBKR Podcasts. I’m Steven Levine, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers. I’m your host for today’s program. We’ll be speaking with the Gee Vats – she’s IBKR’s team lead in technical recruitment – about this year’s internship program, and the highly competitive nature of accepting those interns for roles on the software engineering and development side, which is really core to the company’s operational success. So, welcome Gee! Great to have you, here.

Gee Vats

Steve, thank you very much.

Steven Levine

Yeah, I’m really happy to have you here. We had a conversation recently with one of the interns we had this summer – that’s Juhi Raju Malkani. She was working on our web and mobile platforms – that’s Client Portal, GlobalTrader, IBKR Mobile, for example. She was mainly on the front-end, I understand … or user interfaces. And I recall she was enthralled, really. She was just over the moon about the practical, real-world applications of her work. It wasn’t just something that was offline, or it was theoretical. It was something users actually get to experience – for her code, right? And this work was right in line with her goals of becoming a full-stack developer. I mean, I really urge listeners to check that podcast out. But given that, Gee, when you visit college campuses, or when you discuss IBKR in terms of, say, its culture or the internship program, what ultimately do you want your audiences to take away with them?

Gee Vats

Sure, Steve. So, when visiting a campus, which is actually right now what I’m doing…. I’ve been on the road for the past almost two months now. And yes, you know, it’s very exciting to meet students and listen to them, and my goal is to leave a long-lasting, positive impression on our audience, which is our students. So, here I want to tell you what are my takeaways. You know, first thing what I want them to have is excitement. What they can be enthusiastic [about], what they can know about IBKR, and what do we do, and how we are different. I provide them with the understanding of what we look for in terms of technical skills, what we are offering, academic programs, and our other resources in the company … then connections. I try to foster a sense of connection about where their passion and IBKR merge … then, the comfort. You know, it’s very important for them to feel comfortable and confident in their decision to consider coming to us, because, of course, it’s scary – any new decision is very scary. What I want them to take away is inspiration, because it definitely … you know, IBKR has some inspirational stories. And the first one begins with, of course … we all are here because of the success stories of Mr. Thomas Peterffy. You know, his story I always, always try to incorporate in my visits, so people get excited.

Steven Levine

It’s an amazing story. It really is an amazing story. We have a lot of that in our history video. If our listeners go to ‘About Us’ in the ibkr.com website, there’s so much to that story. It really is truly inspirational. It truly is amazing.

Gee Vats

And actually, it’s exciting when students come to me and say to me, ‘Oh, we know. We know what he did.’ I feel very proud of it, that I work for a company whose values are way different from the other companies, because [with the] other companies, their focus is sales and other aspects. But I think what I’ve learned … and today is my fourth anniversary of work here … what a coincidence, right?

Steven Levine

That’s great. Well, happy anniversary. Yeah, that’s terrific.

Gee Vats

Thank you. So, in my four years of journey, I felt that every single person I work with Is very much inspirational. Plus, everyone cares about their employees. More than the numbers, they want whatever we have, whoever we are recruiting, we need them to feel comfortable and stay with us for [a] long time. It’s very comforting for anyone coming from outside, and if I’m not passionate about what I do, I cannot get anyone in the company – does not matter [if] it’s full-time recruitment, it’s campus recruitment, anything. And when I think [about it], the most important thing for the campus is giving them the overall positive experience. So, the overall impression is of a company is very, very important for me.

Steven Levine

And enthusiasm is certainly contagious. I mean, you’ve got it. You’re going to give it to somebody else. Let’s say I’m somebody who’s interested in pursuing some kind of software development or computer engineering at Interactive Brokers. What would you say to me to pique my interest in developing my career at Interactive Brokers?

Gee Vats

We are a very unique firm. It’s important for me to tell them that we are unique. There are many companies out there that are doing different things, similar things. But why we are unique. Everybody comes to me and says, ‘Oh, we would love to work for a financial company,’ and I stop them there.

Steven Levine

What do you say to them? It is a financial company, but….

Gee Vats

We are technology first.

Steven Levine

That’s right.

Gee Vats

And a financial company second. However, what is most important for them to understand [is] that our leadership … our leadership is very authentic, very hands-on. Everyone in [our] leadership [is] still hands-on. You go to them and ask … ‘this is a problem’. They will give you a solution, because they’re still doing it. And the use of technology … how we are trying to automate every single part of the business, not only what people see, but what is behind the scenes, like a small piece of anything in the company … and we want to automate that. So that’s great. And then, we value our employees, and the number of employees. It still gives me goosebumps, Steve, trust me. Whenever I say that we are 2,900 something in global employees, but every single person has accomplished something … and can say today that ‘I have contributed this for success.’ So, that’s a great success story for the company, not like 100,000 people where you’re just a number.

Steven Levine

Right. Right.

Gee Vats

I have worked in a company where it’s 100,000 people and nobody cares, you know. You go, someone else will come. But here we want to be so engaged with our employees. ‘What’s going on? How are you doing?’ So, I guess that’s [the] most … [it’s] very, very important for me. And another thing, what I tell everybody is ‘longevity’. I don’t know if you know that or not, but in our software development and technology group, the minimum tenure of any software developer there is ten years.

Steven Levine

Ten years. Ten years is the average tenure. Wow. That’s really something. So, there’s not a lot of turnover in the technical side, in software development? They come here, they stay here.

Gee Vats

Yes, yes. Right. They stay. They absolutely stay here. We keep them here. Exactly.

Steven Levine

What keeps them here? Is it the engagement?

Gee Vats

So, a creative environment, first of all. Our developers, and people who are technical … they need their mind to work … they are creative. So, the free environment of creativeness is very important. Then, another important thing, what I have heard from people is, ‘What’s your hierarchies?’ That means what they’re trying to understand is: ‘What I’m going to do, where [is it] going to land up?’ And: ‘Will someone know what I’m doing in the company?’ This is a huge deal. This is a big, big deal for anyone – especially coders. They say, ‘Alright, you know, I’m just doing coding, and nobody knows what I’m doing.’ it’s incredible that how our leadership from the top is so involved, and software development is one area, which is driving this entire company.

Steven Levine

Yes, I think it comes down from the beginnings, or the very foundation of Interactive Brokers, and the whole history of it through what Thomas Peterffy was doing with innovation. I mean everything that he ended up doing amounted to the introduction of the entire electronic trading system as we know it.

Gee Vats

Correct.

Steven Levine

And that is absolutely … absolutely … still part and parcel … that spirit of innovation is …. and why it’s important for technical developers, for software developers, for computer engineers, to be creative, as it allows them to then take what they know and innovate with it.

Gee Vats

Absolutely. And, you know, we have a video on our career site [‘Why Develop at Interactive Brokers’] [about] writing the software without the bureaucracy. And a lot of students come to me, and they talk about it, that this is what appeals [to them]. Because ‘we want to do something which is not red tape … which we are not stuck in red tape’. So, when they say, ‘What is your hierarchies?’, I immediately get that feeling what they’re trying to understand here. And I get this question all the time: ‘How is my growth in the group?’ And I always tell everybody [that] it’s very organic. If you are amazing … if you do what is beyond what we thought … it’s not a number that, oh, you’re going to get a promotion, or you’re going to move ahead, in two years. It can be in six months or a year.

Steven Levine

Or people may just simply really enjoy what they are doing and build on that within those parameters. And really not want to go into a different kind of role, where they might be doing something a little bit different, because they just love what they’re doing.

Gee Vats

Absolutely, absolutely.

Steven Levine

I mean, so there’s a lot of grounds for the development of, really, the individual … and what they want and need out of their own career, and we have that here.

Gee Vats

Yes, absolutely, 100%.

Steven Levine

So, how many interns did we have? I know it’s a competitive program.

Gee Vats

It’s very competitive.

Steven Levine

I wonder what it is that makes it competitive? And maybe illustrate this somewhat by telling us how many applied and how many were accepted just on the technology side, or just on the software development side?

Gee Vats

Yes, sure, Steve. So, this year we had twenty-two interns who participated, and did fantastic work, and all did something great for the company. And everyone is super happy. However, when students come to me and ask me how many numbers of internship positions do you have, I tell them ‘I don’t know yet’, and they ask me why, I say, ‘Because we are not about the numbers, we’re about the business need. Because we want to give you an experience when you come in the company – you’re not picking up the papers from the photocopier machine, or giving someone a coffee. It’s all about work. You’re going to be like a full-time employee. People will not even know that you are an intern here. And you will be doing something meaningful, where, when you leave, they’re going to talk about it – that this is [the] accomplishment of the intern and he or she did that.’ So, that’s what we come from, and it all derives from our business needs. And this is one area, which Milan [Galik], our CEO, is very, very clear about … that we need to give them a meaningful experience rather than just filling our internship numbers.

Steven Levine

Yes, with the feedback that we’ve had from interns in past interviews … We had a podcast, ‘Keys to a Successful Career’ [Part 1, Part 2]. We did interview a gentleman there [Amol Gharpure] … Juhi as well. When she was talking about this program, there was nothing but positive things to say about it. It was exactly what she needed, and what she could incorporate into her career development that, again, wasn’t just something of an academic exercise. It was really hands-on. It was really something that she was able to create and deliver from an end-to-end perspective and have it be experienced from users. I mean, that’s…. I don’t know if that’s something that really happens at internships.

Gee Vats

Nobody. I have not heard about this at all anywhere. So, today our interns are very proud of what they have achieved. We had twenty-two. And I’m pretty much sure you want to ask, ‘How many applied?’

Steven Levine

How many applied? Yes. Yes. Out of how many? Not out of twenty-two.

Gee Vats

Four thousand.

Steven Levine

Four thousand!

Gee Vats

Four thousand.

Steven Levine

Four thousand applied, and twenty-two were accepted into the program! Wow. I can’t even come up with the ratio off the top of my head with that.

Gee Vats

0.01%.

Steven Levine

That is amazing. I did not realize that it was that vast of a pool to select from. How do you select, then? What are you looking for?

Gee Vats

Criteria. So, you know, first criteria is definitely we have a very high GPA requirement, because we look for the best, of course. You know, we don’t want to settle for less just because … first of all, the internship numbers are literally twenty-two, right? And we want to have the best. I’m not saying that students who have less GPA, they’re any less. However, it’s of course, you know, this is very competitive.

Steven Levine

Do you care about the school rankings … where they go to school?

Gee Vats

Absolutely, absolutely. We look for definitely good schools with good computer science programming I’m not talking about definitely Ivy Leagues – MIT, Harvard – but good schools with good, you know, computer science programs, which is very important. And we have some other criteria … like should be juniors and seniors … because at the end of internship, as we are giving them good experience … but with that good experience, what are they taking with them? And [the] thought that, ‘Will I get a full-time opportunity with the company or not?’ I’m giving my entire 100% in this’, and as recruiting lead, I sell the same way that, you know, ‘You do great. You prove yourself. You will be eligible for a full-time position with your evaluations.’ So, we try to turn our interns as full-time employees, because, first of all, every single manager I work with … they appreciate this program a lot … because simply giving a new hire that kind of experience … on-boarding them, it takes months. However, these interns … they’re already prepped that ‘you’re going to be under speed-dating with the company.’

Steven Levine

Yes, yes, yes.

Gee Vats

So, you need to wrap up your onboarding very quickly. So, the learning curve with these students are just very extensive, and if they can pick up that at that pace, and still deliver something, then those are our future employees.

Steven Levine

So, you are looking for a candidate that can fulfill a business need, in a hit-the-ground running type of basis?

Gee Vats

Absolutely, absolutely.

Steven Levine

And then they actually do fulfill that role, or that business need, and that business need remains something of a need…

Gee Vats

Yes, absolutely.

Steven Levine

…even after their internship ends, and so that makes a natural sense for them to fill that role full-time.

Gee Vats

Right. Absolutely. And because of our criteria, we have very hard technical evaluations, a lot of people fail. And I’m very honest. Whenever I go to schools, I’m very honest that, ‘Sorry, we are not looking at freshmans and sophomores.’ This year, I have met so many people who actually came in their freshman and sophomore [year] last year and came again: ‘Hey, I’m here again.’ So, at least they have something to look forward [to]. Not like, ‘Okay, we’ll see what’s going to happen.’ I think it’s always very, very good to be very clear what we are doing, which gives somebody on the other side confidence that this company is very transparent in their process.

Steven Levine

Yes, yes, it’s so important. So, what would you say out of that 3,978 that did not make it – what percentage of that failed these technical requirements?

Gee Vats

More than 50%.

Steven Levine

More than 50% of those. Wow.

Gee Vats

More than 50%. However, at the end of [the] internship, unlike other companies, we don’t close our internship position till the end. June, the students have to start as interns. April to May, we’re still keeping our positions open. So, we want to give those students an opportunity next time, and we always tell them that, ‘Sorry we are we are done with our recruiting, but we will reach out to you next year.’ So, we’ve put all the data for next year, again reach out to them saying, ‘Hey, you applied, we’re not able to reach out to you at that time we were in touch. Would you like to apply again?’

Steven Levine

Well, that’s great – gives them that motivation to perhaps improve their standing.

Gee Vats

Yes. Yes, absolutely. To keep in touch with them, and they know that, okay, the company cares.

Steven Levine

So, in this year’s internship program, what were some of the highlights for you? What stood out for you? What stays with you? What do you remember from it that you’ll take with you? Maybe some things that you might want to repeat again next year? I know we’ll talk about some of the things you might consider as being different for next year’s program, but what did you like this year that was new, that stays with you?

Gee Vats

So, you know, I think collaboration. This year, we had recruiting and HR had a great collaboration. Onboarding. Students had a great experience in onboarding. Everybody came to me and said we had amazing onboarding. So, that’s something [that] was very exciting for me. This year, we had two HR interns [that] did fantastic job.

Steven Levine

Yes, they were terrific. If I recall correctly, there was a Kelly Clark. I recall that she was just terrific. And Dahlia Pepe, is that right?

Gee Vats

Yes, yes. Correct. Dahlia.

Steven Levine

Yeah, she was also really, really on the ball.

Gee Vats

They both were amazing, and they connected the entire group so well, especially tech interns … or employees … they’re always shy, you know.

Steven Levine

It’s difficult to adjust to a completely new environment, especially one that you might feel a great deal of pressure from, because of the responsibilities that you have that are very different from … like you were mentioning … getting somebody coffee or some kind of assistant type of work. It was all project based, and all at the level of ‘employee-project-based’, and none of that is administrative.

Gee Vats

Nothing. Nothing at all. If I go back and ask anybody, anybody … everyone says, ‘Oh, my gosh, you know, he did this for us, and we are utilizing that piece right now.’ So that’s success for them. That is a success for us, as well. And what they’re taking back with them, and they’re talking amazing things. So, I’ll give you an example, Steve. I just went to few schools, and Stony Brook is one of our preferred schools, because Stony Brook is an area in Long Island, and great students. So, we had two interns who did the internship this year. They both came [to our] booth, and they both stood there for hours and talked about their experience. It was very powerful. One was from the networking side … from infrastructure, the other was from development; and I had another alum with me, who is our alum right now in another group, and a Python developer, and he said, ‘I was here last year, and today I’m here.’ It was so powerful. I mean, the kind of vibe my entire table was having – it was great, because those students can relate so well. You know, [it’s] that, ‘Alright, this was alum who was there last year is now today’s full time.’

Steven Levine

That’s great.

Gee Vats

These are two students who are interns. So, this speaks volume.

Steven Levine

And it’s really amazing to me that there is this population that has not only the interest but the follow through with what they’re doing. And I don’t know how rare that actually is, but in my experience, it seems to be pretty rare. But here in this company, it seems to be normal.

Gee Vats

Yes, that’s why we are different. That’s why we’re unique, and these are the things. I didn’t see anybody on the other tables that they were alums or…. These are our intern ambassadors, and all of the interns this year, they raised their hands to be ambassadors. Everyone reached out to me and said, ‘Gee, if you want an ambassador, when you come to school, we are very happy to be the ambassador.’ And I’ll be going to U. Mass, and one of our interns who interned this year, he’s very happy – he’s like, ‘I’ll be there for you to help you out and tell my story.’ So, this is first-hand experience … what students want, and this is powerful.

Steven Levine

So, I’m sure you’re already preparing for next year’s program. So, how do you anticipate that next year’s program might change? I mean, maybe there’s some things happening at the company, as well that those applying for an internship might want to be aware of as well, when they’re applying?

Gee Vats

Absolutely. So, I don’t anticipate changes, but I anticipate enhancements. Every year, we learn lessons, and we try to incorporate [them] to make it a better experience for our stakeholders, which are our managers – experience for the students, you know. Every year looks different. So, this year … in 2023 … my focus was to get more females, and in tech interns, I’m so proud to say that that we had six female interns this year. It’s a huge success, Steve. [In] 2021, we had just one female intern … one female….

Steven Levine

One. And how many did you have then? Do you recall?

Gee Vats

We had in that time eleven.

Steven Levine

Eleven. We’ll you’ve doubled the pool, and you’ve not just doubled the amount of females in that pool from one to two, but rather from one to six. That’s pretty great.

Gee Vats

So, in 2022, we had we had three female interns in tech; now, this year, in 2023, we had six female interns. So, this is a huge success. So, now it has been four years that I’ve been visiting schools continuously. Now, I know what they want to hear – for females, definitely. I know what I want to tell them – what support groups. What is this … what’s that. But they want to know: “Will we be thrown in a fire from day one, or will we have someone to watch our back? Or is there somebody we can go to?’ So, this is one thing I tell all the interns – you will have your mentor. We do have a mentor program in our organization, the mentorship program in our organization is great. You can learn from somebody totally different … out of your field.

Steven Levine

That’s an ongoing program that’s not just limited to the internship … we have it for our employees, here?

Gee Vats

Yes. So, that’s one thing, and that gives them such a relief, thinking that: ‘Alright, becoming a part of the company and someone helping us through. Not holding my hand and taking me through every single step, but when I need someone, there is somebody.’

Steven Levine

Yes, and to train that attitude little by little to become more and more independent … to gain that voice.

Gee Vats

Absolutely, absolutely. And another thing that I felt is very important is evaluation methods. They want to know that ‘what I’m doing is good or bad’. Feedbacks.

Steven Levine

Do we have those performance benchmarks?

Gee Vats

We do. We have those. I created that last year, and with that said, just to let you know, last year we had in total … we had 13 interns last year for technology, and we turned nine full-time.

Steven Levine

Wow, that’s a really, really great ratio.

Gee Vats

Yes. So, all of them had to go through the evaluation. Without the evaluation, [they] will not know how did they do?

Steven Levine

If you get that feedback from your manager or mentor along the way, then that’s also a sort of reinforcement, isn’t it?

Gee Vats

Absolutely, absolutely. Because that’s how they know that what they are doing is right or wrong. I mean, feedback for anybody is very important for sure, but ten weeks … if they don’t get to know anything, they’re just losing that ten weeks.

Steven Levine

Well, it’s certainly important for us because we have that business need, right?

Gee Vats

Of course, yes. True. Absolutely. Absolutely. But you know what? What I have learned … that when interns come in, I take one session with them, and try to tell them that what they need to do … plus, rather than listening from me, ‘it’s better you should listen from someone who was an intern, and [be]came full-time with us, and they can tell you what mistakes they did … what they could have improved, and what they should look out for.’ All of those things. It’s very important. And I think this year I felt more proud because we had a great, as I said, partnership – great onboarding, plus great learning sessions we had. And for the tech and software group, I made sure they get a little bit more than that. So, I created another lunch and learn session for them – only, only from technical people.

Steven Levine

That’s awesome. That’s really great. We had a lot of really great feedback about the information sessions – that they didn’t feel left out. They didn’t feel bored by areas that had seemingly little to do with their actual day-to-day in the internship. But they loved it. They loved all of it. And I thought that that was … that was really terrific.

Gee Vats

Then, I think, another initiative I personally feel should be focused, and I’ll definitely work this year, is going to be wellness … wellness initiatives.

Steven Levine

Wellness. Okay, what would that be? What is Wellness in in how you’re constructing?

Gee Vats

You know … like mental, physical, that they should not feel the tiredness, thinking that, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, what should I do?’ We have some resource … that they can talk to people. They can dial-in, and they can see that if something like, if you’re getting overwhelmed, you have some resource. And the other thing, what I think, is global opportunities. One of my interns who worked for one of the groups here, he also had an opportunity to work with someone in Budapest.

Steven Levine

Okay, in Hungary.

Gee Vats

Yes, in Hungary. So, that was great. He had a good experience. However, I feel that our internship program, hopefully it can go global. We started with Hungary, actually, this year, and we had, I think two or three interns for Hungary, which was great. But I think if this gets expanded, it can be a global exchange of interns.

Steven Levine

Where exactly are they located?

Gee Vats

They’re all Greenwich [Greenwich, Connecticut, United States].

Steven Levine

Okay, not in Chicago, not anywhere else.

Gee Vats

They’re. We have some in Chicago, but no technology is in Chicago. Some client services, and all, you know, they’re in Chicago. But technology is just based in [Greenwich].

Steven Levine

Just here, not in India either.

Gee Vats

So, India – their education system is very different, that’s why their internship is very different. So, at the end of their last year, [for] six months, they have to do an internship, which is a kind of full-time job. So, in India, when someone is doing an internship, and after six months, if they are doing good, they become full-time.

Steven Levine

So, it’s unique to India – their program.

Gee Vats

Yes, correct.

Steven Levine

Are there software developers there?

Gee Vats

Yes. We do, we do. But here, because of how the education program is structured, that you have ‘this many hours,’ you know, two months of your summer you can do internship, but you cannot do internship for six months. You have to come back to school, showcase the work, what you have done, take the credits for that, and take the full-time offer – and once you are finished, then you can start.

Steven Levine

And because it’s a competitive program, I’m so glad we got all your insights into what you’re doing, what you’re creating. I think it’s really fantastic. So, congratulations on a great program, and thank you, again, thanks so much for doing this.

Gee Vats

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Steven Levine

For our listeners, you can hear more of IBKR Podcasts at the IBKR Campus. They’re also available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. And wherever you might tune-in, please rate and review us, we’d love to hear from you.

We’ve also recently launched our new podcast series Cents of Security – that’s ‘Cents’, ‘C-E-N-T-S’, as in the kind of cents that you might have in your pocket. It’s a whole series focused on financial literacy and career development. And for those of you interested in learning all about, say, credit scores or managing a 401(k), or seeking auto financing … a lot of really great topics, including not only Juhi’s first-hand account of her experience as a summer intern, but also from another side of this year’s intern class –those pursuing liberal arts-related careers, and how they found success at our financial services firm. So, you won’t want to miss that.

And for a full list of financial education offerings, visit the IBKR Campus, where, as always, all of our educational material is provided to the public at no cost. And until next time, I’m Steven Levine for Interactive Brokers.

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