Pros
I worked in the Fixed Income team. One of the toughest Java interviews with a lot of emphasis on core java particularly in multithreading led me to believe I will be doing some pretty cool work. - Base pay + Bonus + profit sharing makes this one of the best places as far as compensation goes. - FT employees has remote desktop connectivity over VPN - Top Person who heads the group is very technical and very good to work for. - Flexible to large degree for a Financial firm. - Great place to learn the Financial vertical if that is what you are looking for. - Excellent benefits above par with most companies in the area.
Cons
Having worked my entire career in startups and midsized companies, I found myself a misfit here and quit after 6 months, During the 6 months I was there, I found myself writing plain old JDBC code to move data from one table to another. It was getting quite apparent to me that continuing here would be a career killer. - Deployments done every other Friday starts at 6:00PM and could go until midnight. So if you are the kind of person that wants to go out with your family for dinner/movies on Fridays, this will be a blocker. - FI groups discouraged to use modern java frameworks like Spring. Managers that work under the director strongly oppose popular readymade frameworks like Spring because they don't quite understand its benefits. - Too process oriented, everything goes through a very lengthy approval process. This includes new development tools, libraries and technology. - Machines are locked down to the point where as an engineer its impossible to download and try new technologies and tools. - Lack of choice to opt for another operating system like Linux or MacOS. As a java engineer developing on windows is extremely unproductive for me. While Cygwin makes it slightly better, its not the same. - Not motivated to exploit latest advances in databases like big data. - Some principals act like bullies and have its my way or the highway attitude towards others on the team. They accomplish this by divulging as little information on a need by basis to other members on the team. - One on one meetings turn into status meetings. In the past its always been a way to discuss ways to better communicate and improve the working environment. - Formal wear, full suit and tie was boring after a while.
