Pros
I've been a software engineer for over 10 years in the Chicago area, and I've been at a big 5 consulting firm, and this is now my third prop trading shop. It's the best place I've been so far. - Great benefits, compensation - Work with incredibly smart people - Fully stocked kitchen, free breakfast and lunch(so much so that there is a phenomenon known as the CTC 15) - Passionate workforce. I can't say enough about this, I have yet to meet anyone at CTC that I thought didn't care and was just going through the motions. - Wonderful educational opportunities - The in house education department(3 full time people) is great.
Cons
- Promotions across teams can seem unfair. The bar for promotion on team A may seem much higher than the bar for promotion on team B. This has been an issue at every firm I've ever worked at or been a part of, but still, it happens. - Other than that, my gripes are very persnickety(like why can't we get skim milk in the upstairs fridge?)