[calabin]

To add onto that, firms like Citadel still do cast a wide net even if their targeted recruiting is primarily at top tier schools. They advertise in common business classifieds like Crain's, for example.

Firms like this also employ a wide number of third-party recruiting services and internal contractors, I know at least one. If you can impress one of these third-parties you can get in the door without a degree from Stanford.

It's true about not caring about if you write whatever language that they do - what I've found is that most firms are generally interested in your combined intuition for markets, math, and analysis. If you "get" market mechanics, have a solid grasp on mathematics, and have the creativity and skills to apply those skills in an innovative way, they could care less what your primary programming language is.

For example, if you have the market intuition to understand the common underlying drivers between RBOB gas and WTI crude, are creative enough to come up with a new form of analysis, and have the math skills to take that idea from conception to delivery, they really don't care if you have to learn CPP to integrate your intelligence and creativity into their infrastructure.

Source: Work in/around the industry building data processing for trading firms, funds, etc. Also received a couple of prop shop offers.