Pros
- SIG frequently has employee events such as "Night at the Ballpark", "Family Fun Night" at the Philadelphia Zoo, and Summer "Block Parties" - SIG always offers to reimburse things such as Uber and ride-shares from any company event that involves alcohol - SIG often has "sweepstakes" for employees where you can win money/prizes - you can generally tell that SIG cares their employee's happiness - that, of course, is a bit of a ploy to convince employees to overlook the rest of the company's shortcomings - The workplace environment is nice - no cubicles, newly renovated workspaces, with plenty of whiteboards, also a fairly nice gym - Lots of other employee perks, such as free tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and often discounted tickets to other local Philly events - SIG's recruiting department loves to tout how SIG has a "flat management structure" - what this really means is that there's no "titles" like you may be used to in other technology companies - [Staff, Senior, Principle] Software Engineer? nah those titles don't exist at SIG - this is neat because it doesn't make you feel as if you're competing against some arbitrary benchmark for a promotion - however, this can also work against you (see the Cons below)
Cons
- 45-hour work week is the expected standard - upper management justifies this by calling it a "working lunch" (the price you pay for free food and snacks - but more on that later) - when you factor being "on call" and other incidental "after hours" work that might come up, it's not unusual to bump that to 50 - however, this is *very* team dependent. - After the pandemic, the lunch has become mediocre - now, sure, it's free food - who can complain? - but most days, I opt to not eat because of how terrible it can be - so much so, that I don't really consider this to be a "perk" of working here anymore - Salaries are great at first, but over time become mediocre, especially when considering the above point of 45-hour work weeks - on paper, SIG's salaries look above average, but many forget to account for the extra 260 hours of your life that you lose per year because of the 45-hour weeks - a $100,000 salary at SIG (45 hours per week) is really a $88,899 salary elsewhere (40 hours per week) - recruiting and upper management loves to tout how "competitive" SIG's salaries while neglecting that point. - "Flat management structure" - this can make it difficult for career advancement, because there's no defined "tiers/levels" to aim for - there's no metrics to compare your career advancement against your peers with similar tenure and experience - Following the above point, trust me, there's nothing "flat" about SIG's upper management structure - your manager has a manager, who has a manager, who also has a manger, who also may or may not have a manger that then reports to the head of technology - it feels like SIG has to give all those "middle managers" a way to stay relevant - this will be a recurring theme with the following WFH points - Work from home is treated like a second class citizen - as of writing, you can only do it two days per week (3/2 split), and there are still some restrictions - furthermore, in SIG's "return to office" effort after the pandemic - you can tell they *really* didn't want anyone working from home - the initial policy wasn't very permissive, had tons of restrictions, and it seemed like upper management couldn't make up their minds about what to do - we got the typical "corporate language" spew of "we value in-person collaboration, it's what this company is built-on... blah blah blah" - eventually SIG backtracked a little after they realized how many people were leaving to go elsewhere with more permissive policies, eventually landing on what is currently in place now - SIG was late to the game in investing in WFH collaboration and productivity tools - only starting a few months ago did we get *bona-fide* company issued laptops - before that, and all throughout the pandemic, it was implied that we'd use personal computers to WFH - Following the above point, around the time SIG was grappling to determine a concrete WFH policy, potential candidates appeared to be misled as to what the policy was/would be - I remember overhearing interviewers being told to tell candidates that the policy was more permissive than it actually was - presumably, so they wouldn't immediately look elsewhere, and by the time they realized it wasn't what was described, it was too late - Around compensation talk times, SIG tries very hard to discourage employees from discussing salaries with their peers - you hear the "corporate-speak" spew of "SIG considers compensation to be confidential and privileged - blah blah blah" - none of this is ever in writing, of course, because in the US, prohibiting salary discussions is illegal - maybe if SIG paid employees more competitively, then it wouldn't have to worry about this - open compensation discussions is a part of a healthy workplace - The technology arm of SIG feels like a second-class citizen to the trading arm - yeah yeah, I get it - the traders make all the money, and technology is just a necessary part of that - but come on, it's not uncommon for a first year trader to be making 3x what a seasoned, experienced technologist does. - SIG is rarely, if ever, on the bleeding edge of technology - sometimes, the company is so "risk adverse" that technical debt never gets addressed and resolved until absolutely necessary, for fear that something may break and hold up the business - SIG has a "win win win" culture, especially in trading - sometimes at "any cost" - this type of culture can tend to attract selfish, egotistical, sterotypical "finance bro" individuals, and that can be felt throughout the company's DNA - As a whole, the company doesn't feel entirely diverse - but, this is team dependent - some teams have above average representation, others do not - especially in technology (but this is also a larger problem with the tech industry as a whole) - As of writing, SIG is on a bit of a hiring crunch, you can tell that the company as a whole is feeling the pain of people leaving (hmm, I wonder why?) - recently, they've been offering massive referral bonuses (up to $5k) to employees for some badly-needed vacant positions - you can tell SIG has been hemorrhaging talent/employees as they continue to stay behind the curve on the current tech/job market - Jeff Yass is a billionaire - if you’re wondering why this under “Cons” - go ahead, Google him - hit the “News” tab and see what you find