Pros: Good, friendly place to work. Good promotion prospects.

Cons: Parking hell and tubes are a nightmare at rush hour.

Pros: None, really. There are none.

Cons: Everything. The year I worked at Visa EU will always be remembered as a stressful and dark period in my life. I am so glad it is over, I cannot tell you. They treat contractors like rubbish. They have zero regard for contractors' family commitments. The pathetic game playing and politics render the place toxic and unworkable. They reward people for playing the game and screw hard-working staff. They demand bums on seats but couldn't care less if you actually surfaced any work at all. Starting work at Visa was such a mistake. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE.

Pros: * Good company to have on your CV. * Training was good (though the budget was being reduced in my last year). * Decent benefits.

Cons: For a company which relies heavily on technology, the management had low respect for permanent development staff. There were two avenues of promotion available to technical staff, whereas there were countless opportunities for management. Management felt that technical staff could easily be replaced with insourced/outsourced staff. Top heavy. Some projects had the same number of managers as development staff. Some teams consisted of one manager who had one "resource". Some projects had unrealistic deadlines due to poor prior planning.