Pros: Some of the newer teams are working on really cool stuff. If you get into one of these teams, you will have lots of fun. The culture is laid back; no one cares if you walk in at 11 am, unlike some of the older teams where the manager will take you aside and lecture you if you come in at 9:35 instead of 9:30. Don't join the older teams. You'll work on the same thing for your entire time, sometimes not even pushing any code to production for months on end, ending up in the project being cancelled. Some of these notorious teams are: * Any of the "yellow key" groups such as Equities and Mortgages * Some of the real-time teams such as BPIPE, Ticker Plant, Data License The cool teams are Software Infrastructure and some foundational application teams.

Cons: Lots of cliques, particularly in the older teams. Avoid the older teams.

Pros: If you land on the right team, there is a lot of flexibility and great work-life balance. Fortunately, the percentage of the "good" teams is growing steadily, especially within the Derivatives and Infrastructure departments of R&D. There are a lot of opportunities to grow professionally, but you need to forge your own path. Very intelligent colleagues, great ideas. Free snacks and drinks/juice all day, every day. Excellent compensation and benefits.

Cons: A lot of red tape (as with many large and successful corporations), meaning that great ideas need a lot of persistence to really take off, or else they will be swept aside for the next money grab enhancement. Some old technologies and implementations are so established that they're tough to supplant with smarter/faster/newer ones. Open floorplan. While it fosters collaboration, concentration is very easily broken.

Pros: Great compensation and benefits, excellent, driven, talented co-workers. If you find finance and software fascinating, it would be hard to find a better match.

Cons: The environment can be stressful at times due to the push to get things to production quickly. Global financial markets operate constantly, 24/7 (or almost), and you can be on call at any time.