Citadel reviews

4.0

70% would recommend to a friend

(763 total reviews)
avatar

Ken Griffin

84% approve of CEO

80% positive business outlook

Citadel has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 763 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Citadel employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

763 reviews
1.0
Jul 23, 2014

Stay away

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are no pros to this, because its normally about the money, but see the cons section.

Cons

Pay. When you work out how many hours you will lose from your life, the money is ridiculously low. Has an jnner circle - if you are not in it, your career will be glacial, and you will be unfairly paid. I am suspicious of some of the reviews about using latest technologies....thats complete hogwash. Be prepared to be forced to use really old technology, and when you ask for new tech, get berated and flagged as a trouble maker. The level to which the company is behind on latest technologies is profound. The five star reviews here on Glassdoor HAVE to be Citadel HR; its impossible for such an opinion, and I NEVER found anyone in tech that loved working at the company. Depressing.

4.0
Nov 5, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive compensation, particularly given the lower cost of living in Chicago. Extremely intelligent work-force, there are no dumb people at Citadel. Enormous amount of prestige of having this on your resume, even years later. Amazingly sophisticated, nothing is half-assed here, there's no vaporware.

Cons

Depending on the group general lack of good career paths past third or fourth year. Also depending on the group very long hours expected. There's a lot of variation within the company, and it spans the range from very "banker-esque" to very academic. Management has a tendency to view employees as call options rather than teammates. There's a tendency to set unrealistic expectations and apply high-pressure.

3.0
Dec 15, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you got skills and put an effort to get things accomplished, you get paid well. Smart people, aggressive culture. People are very responsive (just becase people is commodity at citadel and get fired easily if don't perform) and usually things gets done rather quickly with minimal bureaucracy. Great benefits, free food.

Cons

There is zero mobility within, if you want to acquire new skills or move within departments, or move closer to business..it is virtually impossible. The place is well oiled money making machine. Each person is expected to do its small part of an assebmly line. Management don't like when people ask to do something else even relevant to what their skill set is. Especially, if you do your job very well, they just want you to stay where you. Management will promise you bright future/new opportunities to learn, in order to keep you at your assembly point as long as possible, but these promises never fullfilled. A lot of politics. Management think they are so smart and experienced, they don't need any ideas from their subordinates/employees and just manage as they think fit with total disregard/ignorance for good ideas coming from employees. That makes a lot of efforts/new things fail, like their securities business or other efforts in fixed income. No respect for people, it is just a replaceable commodity. This is the worst place out of few hedge funds I worked for, even far worse then SAC Capital. Glad I got out. My advice is you want to grow your career, don't come here. If you don't care about growing anymore and just want to make top money for your skills, this is the place for you.

Viewing 22 - 24 of 763 Reviews

Glassdoor has 983 Citadel reviews submitted anonymously by Citadel employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Citadel is right for you.