Pros: I've worked at Optiver a long time. Every year it gets better. * The company is managed on the basis of principles and values, not process or politics. * Those principles and values align very nicely with mine: * Autonomy: there is very little hand-holding and extraordinarily high expectations of individuals in the company. The company rewards those that keep pushing those expectations higher with greater responsibility and authority. * Collaboration: there are a lot of great fights over the right way to approach a given problem. When we're at our best, everyone in the fight has a strong opinion but is also listening to everyone else and continually re-evaluating that opinion as new information, ideas, and opinions are expressed. * Prudence: the company carefully evaluates risk/reward trade-offs both when it comes to trading and technology decisions. The latest fads (cryptocurrency, esoteric programming languages, etc) are carefully evaluated, but reckless pursuit of them is frowned upon. I'll end with a sports analogy. Working at Optiver Chicago is like playing for the Patriots or the San Antonio Spurs. It certainly isn't for everyone. But if you like competing for the championship every year and always pushing yourself to be better, there's no better team to join.

Cons: If the company values do not align with yours, you will find it an increasingly frustrating place to work. Honestly, just read the cons from other posts and you can see how that plays out. If you find the principles above strange, out of fashion, or backwards, you'll agree with other people's cons. If you think those principles are refreshing, you will have a hard time coming up with many cons.

Pros: Great Culture: Strong focus on testing, clean code, and simplicity. There's a lot of close teamwork, and the senior developers set an example with humility and hard work. Smart People: You get to work with mostly A-players. Stable and Successful: The company has been profitable for over 25 straight years. Not many trading companies can say that, especially these days. Work/Life Balance: It is great.

Cons: - Lots of young talent in need of "professional development." There's still an unnerving number of face-palm moments. - Hit-or-miss management: Some managers are fantastic, others leave a bit to be desired.

Pros: There are some really nice and smart people. Work can be interesting. Having a barista on-site is quite nice.

Cons: Shame those nice people are not in a position to make change. Optiver used to be a nice place to work. Then management and HR decided that people could be more productive if they were told that everything they do can be better or done faster. A toxic culture of blame. People become withdrawn due to the excessive load and expectations. Some teams are worse than others. If someone decides a person should go, they will be bullied out of the company using a performance improvement program. If you are going through hiring, make sure to ask for a proper base salary, since your bonus depends on your rating, and that is at the mercy of management.