Pros: Work-life balance is good. Flexible 9-5 hours. Compensation is okay. Friendly people.

Cons: Work is very dull, not interesting, and filled with horrible corporate process and red tape. As a result, you won't be able to learn much as an engineer. Engineers in London are not given the same support as their Nottingham counterparts. Performance management is completely unfair. You are not rewarded on your technical ability and delivery but on how well you sell yourself to senior managers. HR is very unhelpful, non-responsive, and their only interest is to protect the company. Hiring is also very biased. Again, people who are all talk but no substance get hired, while actual talented engineers are not taken into consideration. This results in many hires having imposter syndrome.

Pros: Agile & cloud-focused (although legacy systems still exist, there is massive buy-in from the CEO down on focusing on using modern cloud-native architectures and cloud platforms). Large company (never concerns about there being work to do; ability to move around different teams and departments can help keep things fresh). Work-life balance (both including expected working hours/time-off, as well as the ability to be involved in volunteering, learning opportunities, or side-of-desk projects during work hours). Benefits (very competitive salary for the area + good financial/retirement benefits, good healthcare and personal options).

Cons: Performance rating system (a certain percentage of employees must be ranked at certain performance ratings, including negative ratings, and promotion standards and opportunities seem to vary widely depending on your part of the company). Large company (decision-making and coordination between parts can feel cumbersome depending on the scope of the project you're working on). Beyond being a large company, the financial industry has steep regulations which further govern what is and isn't possible (making it hard at times to scope down MVPs to quick releases on the way to an incrementally more robust build out).

Pros: - Great work-life balance - Great perks and benefits - Good learning opportunities

Cons: - Too much meeting. - Project sometimes moves slow.