Pros
-Junior people are generally honest, friendly, and extremely smart -Some really exceptional managers as well (along with some less than exceptional ones) -Relatively transparent internally for a trading firm -Compensation is reasonably good for the trading/hedge fund industry, and fantastic relative to most other industries -Excellent benefits -Management can be very agile, people will push to implement an idea quickly when it seems good -There's a sincere culture of charity and giving back -Not completely a meritocracy, but pretty meritocratic. If you make the company money you will get paid, up to a point.
Cons
-Firing can be arbitrary or politically motivated -Amsterdam office priorities can conflict with Chicago office priorities, and Amsterdam always wins -Management can change priorities rapidly, feels disorganized at times -Bonuses are inherently political, and the distribution of the bonus pool is very skewed -Lots of turnover, most traders have been in their jobs for less than 3 years -Strategies are generally quite latency dependent and internal trading systems are both quite automated and quite idiosyncratic. Lots of what you learn here will not be useful anywhere else. Though this is beginning to change. -Changes to trading strategies/systems aren't always made in the most scientific way -Chicago office subsidizes bonus pools of other offices, particularly Amsterdam