Pros
They know how to trade well and are good at rational thinking. The Assistant Trader internship might be the best internship in America. The poker culture is also solid even though the founders and higher ups (not talking about BC/JA) think about the game the way one would in the early 2000's and not the mid 2010's.
Cons
No diversity: almost all of the decision-making is done by white males. Only women they visibly hire are in HR – they will do their best to include the few minorities/women that they do hire in every recruiting picture possible. (Look for repeating faces it's hilarious) They will brag about their education department but it really isn't that incredible. Any real trader you ask will tell you how everything you'll learn about trading happens on the floor, talking to other practicing traders. There is one sharp fellow who was in education when I left, and I'm not sure why he isn't on the floor instead. The other two clowns up there are a soccer mom and a pompous neanderthal There's another issue that at least applies to incoming Assistant Traders, which is: at every point in your lifetime at SIG, you will be "priced in" to continue to the next level. At no point do you ever think it's a "rational" decision to stop working there. For starters, they pay interns more than anyone else, and give the best intern experience possible. This sells you on the idea of becoming an AT. Then you're an AT and grind pretty hard to make trading class, so how could you possibly leave SIG after you make it to that? In doing so, you sign a non-compete and lock yourself into a non-competitive salary (for trading) for the next 3 years. You've committed to living in Philadelphia for the next 1000 days, with the promise of cashing in on the first year after the non-compete. Then after you think your payday has arrived, they shoot you a lowball offer since they are well-aware you already have a stable girlfriend/maybe wife, are planning to have kids, already call Philadelphia "home", etc. At every stage of your relationship with this company, they are so deliberately thinking about how to extract maximum value out of their employees. There's no upward mobility any more. They've got everything in place, and it's REALLY tough to move up. If it were 2000 I would say you should definitely go work at SIG for this reason. No more, now they're just looking for cogs to make the system run smoothly. Then there are the minor things. It's a company worth 11 figures, yet the office decor is bland and there's no color/art/character to the place at all. The food is repetitive and outside of the salad bar, pretty unappetizing and unhealthy. Overall, if you are in SIG's hiring set (white/asian male who is good at math and has some common sense), you should either work: – at a smaller trading firm with people who have better taste (you'll work longer hours for more reward), OR – at a larger tech company like an Uber or Facebook, where it's still homogenous but at least you'll have laxer hours & good food, can live in a better city, and there's a bit more upward mobility, OR – grind it out at a small startup where you aren't drawing dead to win big, even though the hours will be rougher
