Desk·2026-09-22
Lab paper outruns the Chicago shop IC year
Same software-engineer title. Jump Trading prints the Chicago cash year. Anthropic prints the lab mark. Name the book before the next seat.
Anthropic typical $591,000 against $460,000 at Jump Trading.
SWE typical
Anthropic typical sits ~1.28× Jump
Same title. Chicago HFT clears the cash year. Frontier lab clears the paper band. Thin sample on the shop side.
How to plan it
Sit the Chicago IC year before you mark the lab
A software engineer planning 2027 should treat Jump Trading and Anthropic as two IC books, not one high band. Jump prints $460k typical on the ledger with a $215k base you keep. Anthropic prints $591k typical with a $250k base and the rest in lab paper. The shop compounds the year in cash on a Chicago HFT desk. The lab compounds a mark that only clears if the unit stays liquid — and the next seat there is staff at $1.25M typical, not a manager loop. If you need rent and a 2027 cash year and can sit the Chicago shop interview, take Jump first. If you can hold paper and want the 1.28× typical, sit Anthropic IC — then decide staff versus a shop manager later. Do not treat a $460k cash year and a $591k lab year as the same next seat. The title is shared; the books are not.
Also: Jump vs Anthropic · Who pays cash