Mediocre firm. Dysfunctional workplace. Good pay. Great work-life balance.
Pros
Stable, well-paid 9-to-5 job. Great work-life balance. Fairly well-known brand, looks good on CV (especially now as part of NY Life IM) for future career move. Convenient office location in the centre of Brussels. Good canteen.
Cons
Candriam (formerly known as Dexia Asset Management) had a hiring freeze for a number of years which only ended after the company was acquired by New York Life IM in 2014, at which time Candriam went on a hiring spree and started hiring something like 50 new people per year (Europe-wide). But many of these new hires leave after less than 12 months once they realise what a dysfunctional, unmotivating workplace this is. Let's see: lack of communication or cooperation between teams (aka silo mentality), constant fights and rivalries within and between teams,shallow talent pool (many managers spent their entire career at Dexia entities without ever seeing anything else), extreme micromanagement (you need to get executive approval for even smallest stupidests things), attendance valued over performance, amateurish business practices, and some more. It's a wonderful place to work if you're just starting your career in finance and need some work experience on your CV, or if you just want to lay low and have a nice job that doesn't require much effort. But I wouldn't recommend it to a high achiever - you can do much better elsewhere.
