I think they will be impressed by any developer, without professional algo trading experience, being able to understand the nitty gritty of how exchanges work plus some basic algos.
Absolutely. But my thesis here is that most developers without that experience won't actually self-learn how exchanges work and develop algorithms with that knowledge. But your point is somewhat covered by my NASDAQ ITCH suggestion :)
I think I haven't conveyed my point very well - I'm not saying developers need to have a working, profitable algorithm to impress interviewers. I'm saying they need to develop what an interviewer would consider to be an algorithm if they call it that, and it's more likely they won't think of things like e.g. exchange protocols and execution models. It's not a good look if you develop what you think is a relevant portfolio item and instead develop something completely orthogonal to it.
But if they can self-learn that they can absolutely try it. It's not about making it a production-capable algorithm, it's about being aware of what constitutes a modern trading algorithm. The unknown unknowns are more prevalent.
I think a better suggestion than developing a portfolio item is just developing the requisite skills in any case.
I think I haven't conveyed my point very well - I'm not saying developers need to have a working, profitable algorithm to impress interviewers. I'm saying they need to develop what an interviewer would consider to be an algorithm if they call it that, and it's more likely they won't think of things like e.g. exchange protocols and execution models. It's not a good look if you develop what you think is a relevant portfolio item and instead develop something completely orthogonal to it.
But if they can self-learn that they can absolutely try it. It's not about making it a production-capable algorithm, it's about being aware of what constitutes a modern trading algorithm. The unknown unknowns are more prevalent.
I think a better suggestion than developing a portfolio item is just developing the requisite skills in any case.