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A good place to get financial industry experience early in your career

Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Citadel for less than 1 year
January 9, 2012
Chicago, Illinois
3.0
No CEO Opinion
Pros

Great salary, benefits, and facilities. You will face some good challenges that will enhance your abilities. You get the feeling that you are working in a top-tier firm.

Management tends to throw money at a problem when they are having a good year. So, any tool you may need to improve your work will be provided to you.

Cons

You will be completely disconnected from management that's two levels above.

You would strive to make your work noticed, but come bonus time, it's your manager's impression that counts.

I got to meet my boss's boss once in a year, and my opinions were not asked for.

Management practices that are common elsewhere are not implemented at Citadel. It feels like a tiny software shop has suddenly grown large, so there are no best practices that are implemented uniformly across the firm. Decisions seem to be taken as if management is flying by the seat of their pants.

It's very difficult to advance to other teams or higher in your own team. Teams are conclaves where very little information gets across to other teams.

There's a lot of burnout. It's hard to build a 5-year stint here. You may stagnate or get stressed out. There's lots of turnover here. The compensation package keeps people going. It's top-of-the-line.

Advice to Management

Get some 360-degree feedback going. Ask rank-and-file members for their opinions on how they see operations running. Discuss upward mobility and possible career paths with employees.

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Citadel Interview Experiences