Citadel Securities CEO Offers Olympic-Inspired Career Advice to Interns

During an informal chat with Alex DiLeonardo, Chief People Officer of Citadel Securities, Zhao offered career advice inspired by Olympic sports, including advice on developing confidence, ambition and winning.

Zhao watched the triumph live from the stands in Paris when he and Citadel Securities founder Ken Griffin organized a company outing to watch the track and field events from the Stade de France. He also watched trailblazing athletes like Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh and Pan Zhanle, “swimmers I’d never heard of, and most people had never heard of,” gain confidence as they competed and broke records, he told interns.

McIntosh, 17, became the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. China’s Zhanle, 19, broke his own record when he took home gold in the men’s 100-meter freestyle. And France’s Marchand, 22, set four new records at the Paris Olympics.

“They are not just Olympic gold medalists, they will go down in history as some of the best athletes we have ever seen,” Zhao said.

As with the three gold medal winners, age and years of experience do not always correlate with success.

Zhao recounted the first Olympic swimming event and recalled that 22-year-old Frenchman Marchand “walked into the water with his head down, maybe a little intimidated by the crowd.”

“Five days later, when he was swimming for his fourth gold medal, he walked into the stadium facing the crowd, arms wide open — he said, ‘Bring it,’ and the crowd exploded,” Zhao said. “It was really incredible to see someone go from being insecure about himself to having the confidence of a champion.”

The interns Zhao spoke to also know how to beat the stiff competition. Citadel Securities and its sister hedge fund, Citadel, have a notoriously competitive internship program. The acceptance rate for the 11-week internship program in 2023 was about 0.5%, lower than Harvard’s 3.2% acceptance rate.

As a market maker, Citadel Securities brings together buyers and sellers of a number of asset classes for its client base, which includes asset managers, banks and hedge funds. It makes billions by using algorithms to determine the best price for trades and profiting from small price differences.

“I appreciated the small difference between the gold medalist and the swimmers who were not on the podium. We are talking about tenths and sometimes hundredths of a second,” Zhao said.

Zhao knows a thing or two about winning. In May, he told Bloomberg that the company is on the verge of delisting. income records this year, In 2022, sales will exceed $7.5 billion.

“Just like those swimmers, we often compete to be just a little bit better and faster and take home the gold. So remember that, that’s what got you here in this room. That’s what’s going to get you to the top of the podium.”