Pros
- Pay and benefits are decent - not amazing, but not insulting. - Most divisions mandate 1 day in the office, with only a couple asking for 2. - Most accounting/finance divisions encourage lateral job changes. I have had 3 very different jobs in 7 years, and I know someone who started out as an accountant and 10 years later became an underwriter. You can change careers without changing employers here. - Work-life balance is generally good. Most people work 40-hour weeks at the individual contributor level, with people-managers and up working more. Weekend work is rare for most employees, and most managers don't expect the rank-and-file people to be available outside of normal business hours.
Cons
- No real pay raises without changing jobs or at least job levels, and the pay scale is shrouded in mystery. (That might change since Illinois is requiring pay scales to be listed on even internal positions.) - Performance review process is opaque and the general perception is that it's mostly political. If you happened to be assigned a high-profile project, you will be rated highly. If you did not, you will be rated as "meeting expectations". This affects the amount of the "merit-based" bonuses, which are really just cost-of-living adjustments and do not reflect your performance. Also, the number of people who can be given a rating above "meets expectations" is controlled by the bonus budget, not by employee performance. If a division has 5 stellar performers who knock it out of the park but the budget says only 2 can be rated highly, then 3 of them are getting "meets expectations". - Hotel desks instead of assigned seating. There's no reservation system, either, so it's awkward, especially if multiple teams come in on the same day. Honestly, a desk reservation system would fix 90% of the problem.