Citadel Employee Reviews about "long hours"

Pros

Lots of resources to work with, amazing teammates, good comp

Cons

Constant management shifts. High turnover leads to little institutional memory, so the same mistakes get repeated every few years. Long hours, lots of nights and weekends. Little upward mobility (they like to hire from outside).

Pros

Total compensation is above the average in the industry Free lunch Good health care plan

Cons

People working crazy long hours and try to meet the deadlines that were created artificially by mid level managers. A lot of time and resources were wasted on things rather than focusing on the big picture for investment. You will never hear a thank you or recognization.

Pros

Smart and helpful colleagues. Management with vision and determination. Fast-paced environment that allows you to see the impact of work very quickly and being recognized and rewarded for it. Lots of learning opportunities and responsibilities, even at the junior levels. Catered food. Company has been more engaging with both employees and the community over the years through regular town halls and after-hour events. The responses to COVID-19, both in the US and abroad, have been swift and supportive. Lots of testing, planning and provision of resources made WFH much easier and more productive.

Cons

A few things that are more of a culture issue in the finance industry that can turn software engineers off: somewhat long hours, a bit hard to raise a family (company policy has improved but still lagging behind some competitors), opaque and unbalanced compensation scheme.

Pros

Citadel is a great place to work for someone without too much experience in the industry. You can make an impact right away and have ownership over your projects. This comes with more responsibilities and you get to interact with the stakeholders of your work. Having ownership means that you can see your project from initial design through to production. Since the people that use the software that you build are internal clients, you get feedback constantly, resulting in a fast paced iteration process. You will be learning alot really quickly and get to develop not only technical skills, but also communication, leadership, and financial skills. teams are generally pretty small and generally collaborative. The company has a very flat sturcture and results oriented. As a junior developer, quant, or trader, you have many opportunities to interact with leaders in management across different functions.

Cons

Citadel is split among different businesses. As an engineer, you will be supporting traders and researchers who generate money for those businesses. Not all the businesses have the same culture and thus team experiences could differ. This also means that there will be a team with a business need and culture that you will find compelling. Some teams' work life balance isn't too great and do work very long hours. Usually it is because the projects they work on are very time sensitive and high margin. Turnover is relatively high as some new people may not fit in well with the team and/or business.

Pros

Good Pay. Free snacks and lunch

Cons

Long Hours. A lot of stressful days