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Chicago Trading Company

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Great workplace, difficult tech leadership - Anonymous employee Chicago Trading Company Employee Review

3.0
Oct 18, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent work life balance, low pressure, solid comp and benefits, friendly coworkers. Most teams can be hybrid

Cons

Senior tech leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Many choices are made well above the level of actual developers, and we end up with really poor tech choices picked by people who haven't written code in 10 years, without input from senior or principle engineers. Unintentional but significant silo issues, several copies of the same tool developed at the same time with no one aware of it. Something like a B/B- skill level technical shop, and several people below that level with only a few really great engineers. Many of the better engineers end up very frustrated by the top down technical dictation and the enforced choices of tech stacks that often don't make a lot of sense. Tech leads will often try to fully design and plan a new tool to be handed to senior and higher level engineers instead of just gathering requirements and letting them run with it. Often results in mediocre or non useful "solutions" and a "just finish these tickets" vibe where great engineers have to quietly ignore that and build appropriate solutions instead. Big delays in upcoming work while a whole bunch of non-coding managers have 14 meetings to decide how to solve a simple issue.

Explore other reviews about Chicago Trading Company

5.0
Jul 10, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High-potential, high-caliber, low-ego environment. The people at the firm really embody the broader culture of the business. There is a cohesive plan that flows from the board level down to the day-to-day work each employee does. There is also a conscious effort to develop talent, which I really appreciate.

Cons

it's a culture led firm so by nature not a fit for everyone.

4.0
Jul 9, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Collaborative, low level, small company

Cons

High pressure, long hours, ok location

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