Pros
CQG develops tools for traders in the financial market. Their products are market-leading which makes it a nice company to work at. The work is very interesting and provides plenty of intellectual challenges. For anyone engaged in application development, CQG uses current technologies and will provide good experience and development of skills in all parts of the software development lifecycle. The Denver office is downtown in a nice location and CQG has a good working environment in terms of the office space. Management emphasizes hiring top talent and is willing to pay to get it. The company provides many nice incidentals such as a stocked lunch room, parking, and mass-transit passes. CQG has a strong entrepreneurial culture so they can be very dynamic and open to trying new things.
Cons
In addition to the full-time employee positions I have had, I have also worked as a contractor and consultant for years so I have had the opportunity to see the culture at tens of companies. Sadly CQG is one of the worst places I have ever seen for how it treats its employees. CQG takes full advantage of their ability to fire at will. CQG's management is poor at organizing work and managing the work assigned to people. CQG's management is not good at honest professional communication about work results. Management displays favoritism towards some employees and decisions/evaluations are excessively influenced by these personal relationships. As a result, CQG has a very high turnover in staff as employees get blamed for problems or negatively perceived and are very quickly fired by the company. I was constantly amazed at the top talent that came and went through the doors at CQG. Management's attitude that employees are disposable extends to other aspects of the work environment. While CQG can provide good on-the-job skills development and will invest in training for things that are a company priority, management is not supportive of training needs identified by employees unless the employee is a favorite. Likewise, CQG is very willing to try new things such as new technologies, new processes, new tools, or new designs when it is a management idea but the company is not open to suggestions from employees. If you're looking for a company with good pay and interesting work and don't mind the risk of being summarily fired, CQG may be a good fit. If you are good at blending in or think you can become a favorite, you may be able to succeed at CQG.
