Pros: Using advanced technology Good pay and benefits

Cons: The management is involved in local corporate politics and interested in it more than the end result. But not everybody likes that; only some individuals do.

Pros: Decent pay, free lunch. I got a 50% raise when I joined the firm, which was pretty nice. The catered free lunch was just okay, but hey, it was free.

Cons: Bad culture. Be prepared to be yelled at by traders if anything remotely related to your responsibilities went wrong. If you accomplished something, however, no one will come congratulate you, because performing well is "expected". My manager constantly sent out work-related emails at 3 am, and we were constantly working overtime past 8 pm. Work-life balance was out of the window.

Pros: You are trusted and expected to tackle problems and provide solutions as you see fit. In other words, you are provided with a lot of "agency" to make decisions about your job. Compared to other firms I've worked for, if you want to volunteer for a new role, responsibility, or project, you are actively encouraged to and rewarded for doing so. There is no "sorry, that's not your job." The management here is top-notch and knows both the technology and the business intimately. They consistently make good decisions that take into account what's best for the people, technology, and business needs. Many firms claim they are SRE but in reality are just making developers do support work. Citadel truly believes in the SRE model and actively makes every effort to streamline the process of creating applications and supporting them in the right way.

Cons: Some people are not comfortable with the level of agency provided. They prefer to be told what to do and don't want a lot of freedom. You are responsible for your career track here which, while I see as a positive, some may see as a negative.