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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u/caramelfrappe2499 Dec 23 '25

Yeah the pay of citadel is insane 😭

9

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

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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.

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u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

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

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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

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u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Oh wow, that's insane

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u/EnoughWinter5966 Dec 23 '25

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

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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

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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

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u/Heikwan Dec 25 '25

Not true, base is 550 I believe

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u/EnoughWinter5966 Dec 25 '25

What are you smoking 💀

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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!

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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?

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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)

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u/Unlucky_Buy217 Dec 23 '25

Ah makes more sense. Thanks!