Pros
* Very meritocratic company. Decision making is very pragmatic and data-driven, and its fantastic results year after year prove that their ideologies are working well for them. * Technology is held to a very high standard here. A lion's share of the core money-makers for the firm could have (or were) easily been developers at a more traditional software firm. So it follows that keeping our technology and software development practices up-to-date, yet correct, is tantamount to upper management here. * There is a *constant* overwhelming focus on self-improvement, though not so much as to subvert notable achievements and improvements. This is a "good thing" in my mind. * Many very smart people work here. Not "smart" as in "godly developer, and nothing else" smart (though there are some of those types, too); people here are generally interested in learning new things, challenging themselves to be better and picking new things up *quickly.* * The compensation is really good.
Cons
* The soft perks pale in comparison to similar companies (free lunch once per month vs catered meals all day, every day, small fitness centers vs large ones, limited work from home vs "here's a laptop; have fun and make money"), though their hard compensation makes up for this somewhat. * Two Sigma has their hands on a LOT of things within the financial sector. With this reach comes significant regulation. As such, security is much, much, MUCH tighter than a lot of other places. This can feel quite limiting sometimes. * Consequently, the hiring process is really, really, REALLY slow, with much of the bottleneck happening after the decision-to-hire is made. This can turn otherwise-excited candidates off. * You can, literally, work here for YEARS without knowing exactly how the company makes money. The company hasn't done the greatest job in educating its employees on what makes them successful, mostly due to their fortress-level security. * Org changes happen quite frequently.