Pros: There are managers that are passionate about the work and are open to suggestions. It is hands down the best training program in the securities industry for tech and business with very well thought out courses. Fresh grads should definitely come here to work for a few years, even if taking a pay cut, especially if the securities industry is your focus. It is overall very well structured compared to other hedge funds or prop shops with lots of documentation for everything. Everything is very well planned out for newcomers to pick things up quickly. There is decent compensation for the Philly area. There are tons of talented people and hard workers. I think almost everyone at SIG is giving all they got, but some are just more talented than others. There is free food and snacks and some cool outside activities during the year. Management tries not to point fingers when human error occurs, but actually tries to come up with solutions on how to fix them. This is really a rare trait and is highly undervalued. Everyone is really trying; some just try harder.

Cons: Compensation not really competitive on national market. Growth and mobility is hard because how well defined the company structure is. This is really a double edged sword. Everything is very well defined and breaking barriers is hard. I'd say it's good for the company over all but it kinda screws people over that's been doing the same job for many years without an option for growth. Yearly raises are terrible. You really need to hammer down you initial offer because expecting decent growth isn't going to happen. Yes some managers are just clocking it in and out, but that's not the majority. If you get one of those then I feel sorry for you. Some old tech still in play but a lot of people are working on phasing it out. Too many production freezes and sign offs for changes. They are there for good reasons but some are just offensive. It's like they think we graduated yesterday. I'd say half of all the freezes are completely worthless. Some luck does come into play for progression within the company. Depending on what work your manager assigns you, you might be an all star. Seen some people write some pretty impressive and important things, and some people just got lucky to write the important things. And those are usually turds. Documentation is everywhere and is core to the culture. Switch is also a double edged sword because it makes everyone replaceable. Good luck using what you built as leverage for raises and such.

Pros: SIG has a very open and merit based culture. Where as a lot of companies say they run like a startup and have a meritocracy, SIG actually for the most part adheres to this policy closely and is reflected from most of the managers down to the rank and file employees. There are a lot of different groups - even with technology, within SIG. Once you are here, there's a lot of potential to transition laterally if you find a particular interest (Market data, security, server-side, client-side, database..etc) and if you want to work close to the desk/traders, you generally can get that opportunity working for most of the groups here. The employee review structure is fair and a lot of attention is paid to compensation and performance review. Star performers are rewarded based on their contributions and it is possible to come here, do a great job, and reap the benefits - however, there is a limited upside as a technology employee here. The lion's share of the bonuses goes towards traders and head traders here.

Cons: The counter-point to the relative flat structure and merit-based culture is, with the growth that they have been experiencing, especially in technology, the employee structure can feel a little hierarchical in the end and what you do can increasingly feel pigeon-holed. There's a lot of initiatives going on, a lot of projects flowing, but it's easy to increasingly feel like a cog in the wheel without actively going out and ask people from other departments are doing. If you are just starting out, especially in financial/trading industry, you might be better served working for a startup or boutique just to get the opportunity to do a little bit of everything and carve out a niche for yourself. To prevent yourself from settling into a cycle of overspecialization or monotony here, you definitely have to be mindful of actively asking for new projects and growth opportunities. There are some internal competition here as well, from each trading/technology group, as well as internal competition among workers in a particular group. The best technology people within software develop usually get new development projects and architectural leeway, whereas the middle of the pack and lower end performers get stuck supporting legacy systems. To some people, doing support and incremental fixes to existing systems is a safe and stressful job and they are okay with it. If you are particularly interested in writing performance intensive code or novel low level system code, you should specify that and try to get out of legacy support duties as soon as possible.

Pros: People don’t take the work too seriously.

Cons: There was no organisational direction and a lack of impactful work. The software solutions were very hacky.