Pros
Top of the ladder for investment banks, bragging rights amongst other friends on the street (though you quickly feel identified as a tool when around normal people) Good job security and comp for those that have been there a while and have broken through the steep learning curve and unique operating practices.
Cons
Long hours, you can work less and make more elsewhere on the street Survives mostly on reputation, which doesn't really apply to tech roles. Development role involved mostly 1st line business support on archaic, proprietary, poorly designed system (stressful) Poor dissemination of tech knowledge/documentation past your initial initiation training. Slang/SecDB is indeed an interesting platform with great ideas, but the tools and UIs are ancient and make those used to more modern development environments wince. Lateral experienced hires take a significant hit as the tech knowledge you can carry in is minimised. Technology is lead mostly out of the Quant area, not IT, leading to poor quality, complicated code.