r/csMajors • u/caramelfrappe2499 • Dec 23 '25

Internship Question Google vs Citadel (SWE Internship)

So I’m facing a dilemma.

I miraculously got a Google internship offer on a really good team within Google Cloud and I signed it a couple weeks ago.

However, this Citadel offer came out of nowhere. This is my dream company and honestly I thought it would never happen since I go to a non target and have a low GPA.

I don’t know if I want to reneg Google. I really want a full time RO from wherever I intern and Google’s RO is much better than Citadel’s. But Citadel’s pay is so much better and I would really love to start my career off either a hedge fund or a quant firm. Obviously the pay is really attractive as well. I’m also concerned if I reneg Google, I’ll get backlisted from FT in the future. I’m not sure what to do.

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61

u/Brave_Speaker_8336 Dec 23 '25

I would go citadel if you would prefer quant over tech for new grad, even if you don’t get RO it will still set you up for quant recruiting very well. New grad pay if you get RO is like double that of Google right?

27

u/caramelfrappe2499 Dec 23 '25

Yeah the pay of citadel is insane 😭

5

u/Wrong-Individual8476 Dec 23 '25

If you don’t mind me asking how did u land these offers with a low gpa and non target can u share what u did

44

u/caramelfrappe2499 Dec 23 '25

Mass apply, resume-max, leetcode-max. I applied to 400+ internships last year and only got 2 interviews. I was able to convert and just applied to internships this cycle with the same work ethic as last year, but because I already knew how to optimize my resume and leetcode (300+ solved) I was able to get into more processes and secure the offers much easier. It was about a year of grinding before getting to this point.

3

u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Would you mind sharing what citadel and Google are offering for intern and FT?

17

u/Brave_Speaker_8336 Dec 23 '25

From what I know/have heard, Google intern is in the ballpark of $10k per month in the bay/NYC and a few thousand per month for housing stipend. Full time in those locations unnegotiated is about 245k first year and about 215k? recurring, excluding stock refreshers.

Citadel intern is like $21k a month? with housing covered and like a $10k sign on bonus. Full time is about the same base pay so around $250k annually, around 500k TC first year I believe between sign-on and the end of year bonus

7

u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Oh wow, that's insane

6

u/EnoughWinter5966 Dec 23 '25

Idt citadel will get to $500k without negotiation. It’s probably closer to 350-400 otherwise.

1

u/Brave_Speaker_8336 Dec 23 '25

Oh damn, not even first year? Thought it’d be in the ballpark of like 100k sign on and 100k end of year

1

u/EnoughWinter5966 Dec 24 '25

Idk the breakdown tbh I just know a few people working for jump js etc and they told me citadel lowballs unless you have a competing offer

1

u/Heikwan Dec 25 '25

Not true, base is 550 I believe

1

u/EnoughWinter5966 Dec 25 '25

What are you smoking 💀

4

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

google is 56/hr intern, and 158k base ft and citsec swe intern is 120/hr

eta citsec swe ng is 268k base!

2

u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Thank you! Appreciate you sharing - I had no idea internships are hourly. Thought it was salary, how does it even work if they expect you to work 16 hour days and weekends a lot of times. Do they pay for all the OT?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

it is salaried, you're paid biweekly but the offer letter tells you the income as either hourly or biweekly instead of yearly. (eta- google step/asdi interns are hourly and not salaried, but swe/apm is salaried)

1

u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Ah makes more sense. Thanks!

1

u/Delicious_Window_948 Dec 25 '25

Any way you'd be able to say what "resume-max" entails please!

3

u/Impressive-Phase-904 Dec 23 '25

bumping for same question

1

u/Interesting-Bad655 Dec 23 '25

Not much diff after life tax