Finding the talented traders of tomorrow

Finding the right candidate

Finding the perfect candidate for a job can be very difficult. It might seem counter intuitive, but it’s even harder when you have hundreds of applicants for a single job.

This was the challenge that IMC Trading faced. Screening candidates one by one takes a long time and a lot of effort. Even worse, bias can slip into the process.

So what can we do to improve this? How do we make hiring more efficient and fair?

Towards a more effecient and inclusive hiring process

With their specific challenge, IMC was looking to improve on their hiring process with the following goals in mind:

• Quality and diversity of hires over pure quantity.
• Selecting candidates in a more inclusive manner.
• A more efficient way of selecting candidates would be nice to have, but wasn’t the main goal.

 

The skills that make a great trader

So how do you get there? One way to approach this challenge is to look at the brain.

The stereotypical software engineer, strategy consultant or trader are all very smart. They’ve also had more or less the same level of education. Get these professionals to swap careers and they’re likely to struggle.

Why? Because the human brain is like a fingerprint: every unique talent has its own brain profile. One is better suiting certain jobs than others.

How did it work?

Together with BrainsFirst, IMC set out to use the brain to find the perfect candidate. Bias-free. It worked in the following three steps.

1. Create several job profiles by matching brain skills with the skills needed for specific jobs.
2. Get a good view of the specific skill set of each candidate with the Neurolympics. That resulted in a specific brain profile for every candidate.
3. Find those candidates whose brain skills match those needed for the jobs the best. The match score was then used in (pre-)selection.

 

What were the results?

• A more efficient hiring process – Where first all candidates were manually screened, now 85% of applicants were let through or rejected automatically. Leading to less screening costs and time.
• Less bias – More atypical talents got through the hiring process.
• Improved quality of the hires – Better quality of hires with the same amount of time and effort. With the brain profiles in hand it is easier to see where a candidate would fit into the team as well.