Pros: GS is a great place to work with first-rate salary and benefits. The health care is excellent, with on-site health facilities. Lots of great co-workers. A really diverse group with people from all over the world.

Cons: Technology at Goldman focuses on short-term wins, which leads to a lot of thrash and misses potential opportunities that could result from longer-term investments in applied research. Middle management layers (MDs) are driven too much by the need to avoid missteps rather than providing dynamic technical leadership. This is causing young people to leave the firm.

Pros: - Smart people who are willing to help you learn. - You can get good exposure to the business and take ownership if you are interested.

Cons: - Compensation tied closely with the performance of the overall company, low compared to market. - 5 days in office.

Pros: Having Goldman Sachs on your resume is a big selling point. You will get a ton of recruiters reaching out to you and will not have difficulty getting interviews.

Cons: The developer experience here is absolutely horrible. It will be very apparent to you that developers are treated as third-class citizens at this firm; their needs and wants (whether it be budget or tools) are afterthoughts. In addition, if you are a senior or high-performing engineer coming here from another firm, you will likely be disappointed at the level of talent. This is also an ultra-conservative dinosaur company, so perks like work from home are rare.