Optiver

Free breakfast and lunch, awesome barista. Great office building located in the heart of the Sydney financial district.

Penty of nice perks, e.g. gym membership, company trip, social events.

Profit sharing can mean overall remuneration can be high (although unpredictable) if you're a senior.

Work-life balance is decent. 9/10 hour days are the norm.

The company has changed over the last 12 months. Lots of amazing talent (both technical and leadership) has left over the last two-thirds of 2017.

Slow to pick up modern development practices and technologies.

Below market rate base salary ('compensated' by a discretionary profit sharing scheme that can be taken away at any time).

Upper management is opaque, and decision-making by middle management often appears to be motivated by what's best for their careers rather than what's best for the company or their team.

The level of ego among many of the technical specialists can be extreme at times. They're the best of the best, and they're not humble about it.

Personal performance appraisal is directly linked to compensation. Which sounds great in theory, but the performance appraisal process is opaque. It appears to be heavily based on how much your direct manager is willing to 'champion' your cause when individuals are ranked among all teams.

A big part of the problem is technical experts who have entered management roles due to time at the company rather than actual management skills. That's a great place to start in order to steer the Optiver experience back to its former glory.