Pros
-Entrepreneurial environment that encourages new ideas and allows one to rapidly assume meaningful responsibility -Focus on business expansion opens ample opportunities for personal growth and achievement -Flat structure and emphasis on teamwork makes management extremely accessible and helpful -Excellent amenities, including a spacious office overlooking Bryant Park, catered lunch and snacks, weekly massages, company trips, happy hours, etc. -Unique mix of tenures - new joiners often find themselves learning from colleagues who have been with the firm for years (some since its founding!)
Kontras
-Rapid growth and focus on new sources of value trades off with efficiency, generating a significant operational workload and consuming resources which could otherwise be spent on innovation -Similarly, project-level coordination between teams can take a backseat to driving forward progress, resulting in otherwise-avoidable inefficiencies and surprises -Fixed compensation is - while still quite comfortable - on the lower end for competitors of the same caliber (especially for traders) -The performance evaluation process (and how it ties into variable compensation) can be opaque