Pros
- You get to work and have a real impact, you will be given serious responsibilities even as a junior engineer, something very contrary to my experience at larger companies - The work is technically challenging and we keep up with modern standards (C++20 for example) - The WLB is better than other firms in the industry. I have never been pressured to crunch to meet a deadline and I always feel that my time is respected, although there are of course support responsibilities depending on what you work on - Good compensation, although perhaps a little lower than more established firms in the industry
Cons
It's a marketmaking firm, so as someone that fundamentally does not find the work to be very meaningful, it can get a bit draining. Like sure, we provide liquidity to markets which technically helps reduce costs for investors / pensions / etc, but this is so far removed from actually providing a meaningful service or utility that quite obviously the main goal is just to make piles of money. Diversity is not great, particularly gender diversity, although I do find the environment to be welcoming. I speculate that this is primarily just because we get fewer female applicants.
