Mako

Mako's Graduate Trader recruitment process, as set out on its current Sydney job posting, runs in four assessed stages: an online test of quick-thinking maths and problem-solving sent on application; a short task to demonstrate interest in the role; a full assessment day of interactive group activities with the team; and a final-stage panel interview with Senior Traders. Communication between stages runs by email, and each stage gates the next. Preparation has to cover two distinct skill sets — fast mental arithmetic for the online test, and a structured group-trading performance on the assessment day — and the prep for one only pays off once the prior stage is cleared.

Mako's early careers programmes are three named, structured pathways:

• Graduate Trader Programme: 18 months, commences late September, on a two-year trajectory to becoming an Options Market Maker. Opens with a two-week intensive options-theory and markets course, then desk rotations across product areas, then a permanent desk assignment.
• Graduate Software Engineer Programme: 12 months, commences late September, runs alongside the trader programme. Shared option-theory classes and induction projects with the trader cohort, then team rotations across the software organisation.
• Summer Internship: one month, runs annually from July, restricted to students in their penultimate year of study. Covers options theory, price discovery, financial modelling and the technology stack; successful interns have a direct path into the graduate programmes.

The trader and engineer graduate cohorts start in the same month and share their first weeks of training, so a September joiner already knows the cohort their desk will work alongside; the summer internship is the only pre-graduation route in, restricted to penultimate-year students, which leaves anyone earlier in their studies without a Mako-published entry point.

Mako is a focused options market maker, providing liquidity across equity, fixed income, commodity and FX derivatives rather than running a multi-strategy book. A few specifics follow from that focus:

• Graduate traders and graduate software engineers share their first weeks of training, including option-theory classes and induction projects across the two tracks.
• The Graduate Trader programme is structured explicitly as a two-year path to becoming an Options Market Maker, opening with a two-week intensive course before any desk exposure.
• Seven offices spanning London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane and Chengdu, per the firm's history timeline; the Dublin office opened in 2024 and the APAC footprint was extended via the 2023 acquisition of Liquid Capital's Australia and China businesses.
• Independently owned: founded 1999 via a management buyout of Saratoga, with Close Brothers' 49.9% stake fully repurchased in 2015.

A candidate weighing Mako against multi-strategy firms is choosing depth in options market making over breadth, and the 18-month trader programme commits an intake to a structured rotation before any permanent desk — a bet on options as a long-term focus rather than a sampler of trading styles.

Yes. Mako has 3 student and graduate roles open right now, in graduate jobs.

Mako opened its graduate jobs on 31 Aug 2026. Dates are when the firm posted each programme, or when we first saw it on the firm's careers site.

Mako has student and graduate roles open in Sydney and Dublin.

Applications to Mako go through the firm's own careers site, one application per posting, each expecting a CV and cover letter written for that role.