Pros: - Lots of great training; they really spare no expense in inviting some of the best people in software to come and train their employees. - New graduates are given 11-14 weeks of software training, with emphasis on C/C++ and also Bloomberg proprietary technologies. - Beautiful offices. - Talented employees. - Great employee benefits.

Cons: - Still more of a financial company than a technology company, despite trying very hard. - The emphasis on rapid code deployment can really diminish the quality of code.

Pros: New York City. Great pay and great benefits. Four weeks of vacation time. Exposure to more than just plain old software. Free food (somewhat). Some great people work there (as well as some not so great).

Cons: 4 weeks of vacation, but working 12 hours on one day and 7 hours on another isn't enough (8 and 8 works though). Not enough feedback from management. Business/sales people are often responsible for big decisions. They don't have any sense of what kind of resources a project will take. People working here for 10 years are doing the exact same thing as recent university graduates. The work environment sucks with just lines of desks and no vision/noise blocking devices; if you sit next to a manager, expect to have conversations/debates going on at all times. If you sit next to one of the projectors broadcasting announcements on the wall, expect to be distracted by flashing text every 5 minutes. Antiquated system architecture, and frequently broken development tools. Free food is good, but it's all chips, candy, and sodas, with few healthy options.

Pros: Good salary. Nice building. Friendly colleagues (for the most part). Free snacks. Open communication.

Cons: You don't know what the REAL project requirements are until they are 3 days from due. Have to work with stupid financial market conventions that make no sense. The code written here is terrible, and nobody has the time to police it.