[leapis]

There might be a potential market in HFT/trading firms (market makers). They're struggling to recruit right now (industry is doing very well, so high headcount growth) and they're usually pretty small so joining w/ friends means working in closer proximity than you might get in big tech.

Their small class size and heavy new-grad hiring also means that they're usually more flexible with recruiting and some would probably welcome a new pipeline for talented new grads like this.

[bitcharmer]

My experience is that HFT/trading firms are almost exclusively looking for seasoned professionals like low latency engineering specialists. There's typically the expectation of providing value and filling expertise gaps almost right off the bat. Fresh grads are incapable of doing that.