Bloomberg LP

It's very bright and sunny, which might seem trivial, but I personally find it very good for my mood to work in a bright office.

I like the financial aspects of the work, so once I found the team working on precisely what I was interested in, I became quite happy and satisfied.

Don't worry too much about the "free food"; most of it is junk food, though the fruit is great.

If you like finance more than cutting-edge software engineering, you'll find it a pleasant enough place to work at (on the good teams). The bad teams, well, they are out there; do your homework before accepting the offer.

Some of the infrastructure is legacy. This shouldn't be a con for any seasoned developer; it's a fact of life. However, if you're a whiny b**** straight out of college, you might find this distasteful.

There is some politicking, and people get promoted partially based on their temperament and how well they get along with other managers. Again, this shouldn't be a con, but if you are young and naive, you might find this also to be distasteful.

The only really big con is the annual review process, which is a curve-fitted algorithm to award future compensation based on relative (within your peer group) performance. I would advise newcomers to negotiate as hard as you can before signing, because once you are in, there's a good possibility your compensation will stagnate.

Revamp the project and trouble ticketing systems to better reflect the realities of software project development.

Also, mix up the floors a bit; there's not enough casual interaction between R&D and other departments, despite forcing everyone through the 6th floor in transit.