A Fish Market - Software Engineer MarketFactory Employee Review

1.0
Oct 11, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nothing unless you want to learn/know how lowest level attitudes people can be

Cons

All top management is just rubbish at all levels and some of them working there because they cant get any job else where, its a retirement pot for them. Software Engineering team - very few are really good guys in NY. In London, some guys feel that they are from different planet and even doesn't know how many legs a FX forward has and spending all the time buttering couple of top management guys placed in London. BAs and QAs - these two departments in particular bit of shamble, its like you scratch my back and I scratch yours, everyone in these department has some sort of under the table dealings with one software engineering guy from London. Basically if a QA finds issue in a piece of code belongs to one particular software engineer in London, it doesnt get logged in Jira or notified in any project platforms, quietly passed on to this guy who barely know FX and he quietly work on the change and release it and this guy doesnt like to sit in common are where everyone sits for the very same reason. And Finally, Trading ops guys - the less you talk about the manger of this team better it is, he is a small snake in the grass, very busy always playing politics with the director of product to protect their combined interests. Its a big nexus of BA/QA and one software engineer who happend to be good friend of him as well. In London, its all about you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

Explore other reviews about MarketFactory

5.0
Feb 5, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The company has great potential in this space as there is no single company that does FX IT well - Very smart group of and experience people which you get to work directly with - Everyone's work has an impact to the bottom line - Very dynamic environment which makes the day to day more interesting - Direct access to very senior counterparts and banks, hedge funds and ECNs - The culture is Improving overtime as the team scales

Cons

- Live trading is a tough IT environment to run - Very demanding clients since we are running live trading environments - You can feel all of the stress of a trading as if you were working on a trading floor

1
1.0
Oct 20, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Free lunch one day a week * The current director of software development is a mensch (I worked with him when I was there). He is committed to doing the right thing despite the general toxic nature of the company. * The paychecks haven't bounced yet * Many interesting problems to solve

Cons

When I worked at MarketFactory there was no work-life balance. From system startup Sunday afternoon at noon NY time until Friday 5pm NY time we lived in fear of two things: the unstable technology doing something to prevent a customer from using it and the whims of the CEO, Darren Jer. It's also worth noting that all system deploys and maintenance happened between 5pm Friday and noon on Sunday, so forget about things like "summer Friday" or a relaxing Sunday if you work at MarketFactory. At least when I was there. Maybe it's better now, but I doubt it. Darren is a hostile, manipulative guy, a horrible manager, not a leader, and he has anger management issues. When I was at MarketFactory, there was no culture to speak of and no effort to create a comfortable, inclusive environment. If you work at MarketFactory be sure to set boundaries with Darren. You'll definitely need to manage up. It's also worth noting that they had trouble retaining sales and marketing people, and that almost the entire customer success team in NY quit during 2017. Darren will say "those people self-selected out" or "they never were A players anyway" but the one common denominator in all this is Darren. Make your own conclusions.

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