Pros
Terrific compensation packages for 22 year old engineering grads, particularly those working in the quant groups. Total Pay offered to me was much better than the starting offers from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc... Great way to pay off your student loans if you're willing to really work hard and grind and understand the fact that NOBODY comes here to make friends or hold hands with you and that yes, you WILL be arriving at 7AM and working till 10PM on most days. Other days can be worse, especially if you're in Forex capital market trading. Total Comp for 22--24 year olds across my group was around $140,000.
Again, great way to pay off your student loans if you have some ugly ones.
Better hours, better work/life balance, and better paid than the investment banking division.
Great name to have on resume if you want exit ops. It's no Goldman, but seeing where many of my friends ended up, it can get you definitely places.
Good access to private investors and clients if you have higher ambitions of leaving finance and moving onto entrepreneurship and tech start ups in the future.
Terrific bathrooms. Stalls are great for napping in.
Satisfactory coffee.
Sometimes meetings are hilarious and the general atmosphere is more laid back than those at GS, MS, JPM.
Cons
- HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE OFFICE POLITICS.
- Neverending fear that you can be fired the next day (500+ people fired out of nowhere early 2011, 50+ people fired again a few months later).
- Some reckless colleagues can make extremely risky much less stupid trades that screw things up for everybody.
- Not much transparency in many office affairs, particularly when it comes to handing out bonuses.
- Fear of getting fired any day (as compared to my former classmates working at Goldman, MS, JPM...)
