Pros
-base pay is competitive and bonus can be very good -great for those who like a "small-business" mentality and don't mind rolling up their sleeves to do whatever it takes to get things done -citrix is available for working from home -pension is good (defined contribution scheme is STILL better than the defined benefit scheme I had at my last bank employer) -because it is so lean, you of necessity get exposure to many different tasks. You might also get opportunities to manage people that you wouldn't otherwise get in a larger bank. You'll also get exposure to people of many different levels. It's a great "boot camp"--but you have to be able to handle ambiguity, your job changing nearly daily, and having to do grunt work sometimes (no matter what your level). -after two years, you can apply to internal jobs in other parts of the world.
Cons
-IT support is terrible; calling the Help Desk can be a real exercise in futility and frustration -very lean, meaning that if you have an HR question, you don't ask an HR rep: you complete an on-line form and wait days for a response which may or may not help -if you are accustomed to a yearly cost of living increase, forget it (no pay increase this past year, although bonus was very good) -no budget for training -you are encouraged to work over-time (good news is if you are below a certain level you will be paid for it; bad news if you are mgmt you'd better be prepared to work a couple evenings a week and answer your blackberry on weekends) -"innovative" vacation day scheme means your sick days come out of your total pool of vacation days; means that people with a cough or cold will come into work rather than have a vacation day taken away. (I do have a nice boss who lets me work from home in those situations, but not everyone is so lucky) -on-boarding training is lacking; learning is done on the job