Pros: Personal and vacation life/time is pretty well respected. I'm trusted to do my work. It's a place with smart people where networking is encouraged.

Cons: Layoffs shouldn’t have needed to happen, especially when the past two years they were doing well. There's a culture of working late (especially in NY). You need to sacrifice work/life balance to get ahead career-wise.

Pros: - Internal mobility: can change teams anytime to stay challenged. - Good pay, good benefits. - Generally great people to work with.

Cons: Work too many hours, depending on the team. You could work 10 hours a day on average.

Pros: Good on your resume. Will meet hard-working people.

Cons: Constant cost-cutting initiatives. Goldman technology feels they are great in technology and different from other firms. Surprisingly, these comments only come from people who have never worked outside the firm. The reality is that they are not really different, and in fact, their technology is very outdated, resulting in hard work for people and difficult release cycles. Everyone I meet has a constant fear of layoffs. They are just hanging in there until the inevitable layoffs happen. Not a good option for 10+ years of experience laterals. Most would be used for the layoffs bucket or lower ratings in the appraisal cycle. Benefits that used to be great are declining every year. Health benefit premiums and deductibles have increased a lot. No work from home, even for genuine cases. All in all, not worth the hard work you put in. Better compensation/work-life balance outside. The whole firm is pushing toward outsourcing to save money. It has a 20-20 rule. Be prepared to work 20% more for 20% less salary than competitors. They will really keep an eye on you for every small thing, like when you come to the office, how many breaks you take, etc.