Pros: Citadel is a great place to work for someone without too much experience in the industry. You can make an impact right away and have ownership over your projects. This comes with more responsibilities, and you get to interact with the stakeholders of your work. Having ownership means that you can see your project from initial design through to production. Since the people who use the software that you build are internal clients, you get feedback constantly, resulting in a fast-paced iteration process. You will be learning a lot really quickly and get to develop not only technical skills, but also communication, leadership, and financial skills. Teams are generally pretty small and collaborative. The company has a very flat structure and is results-oriented. As a junior developer, quant, or trader, you have many opportunities to interact with leaders in management across different functions.

Cons: Citadel is split among different businesses. As an engineer, you will be supporting traders and researchers who generate money for those businesses. Not all the businesses have the same culture, and thus team experiences could differ. This also means that there will be a team with a business need and culture that you will find compelling. Some teams' work-life balance isn't too great, and they do work very long hours. Usually, it is because the projects they work on are very time-sensitive and high-margin. Turnover is relatively high, as some new people may not fit in well with the team and/or business.

Pros: Great benefits and competitive pay. Smaller teams allow individuals to shine. A lot of smart people to learn from, if you can ever get the chance.

Cons: Very cut-throat and poor culture that makes it a very poor place to work. The firm doesn't seem to be heading in the right direction whatsoever and fails to read the atmosphere of the office. Lack of planning leads to constant context switching. Everything is ambiguous and secretive, and what comes next is never certain. Constant turnover is a massive problem, leading to a massive amount of issues in terms of project management. There is lots of technical debt that will not be addressed, even when the debt threatens the success of the company. Top management is quite disconnected from the workforce and, from what I have seen, do not know how to run a modern technology team. The office is full of unhappy faces. Citadel has a lot of talent but doesn't know what to do with it. It uses a waterfall approach to technology.

Pros: Almost nobody pays better. The work events are usually pretty amazing. Insurance is top tier.

Cons: Sick pay is a joke. WLB is a joke. Tech stack is a joke. Culture is a joke. Very flat structure. Burnout and turnover rates are high.