When you're at the top of the pay scale for your staff level, your raises will stop covering even the cost of inflation. You'll watch the purchasing power of your salary go down and down and down. (I'm talking raises in the 0.6 to 0.8% range. As of the time of this writing, the current inflation over the last 12 months is 2.07%.)
If you experience the death of an immediate family member, expect to be worrying about work rather than grieving and dealing with whatever logistics you need to be dealing with. (Facebook is offering 20 paid bereavement days - which they just increased from 10. AQ offers 3, which is enough to fly out for a funeral and back, but don't expect to deal with things like planning the funeral or any other logistics like helping an aging newly widowed parent, dealing with a will or estate, or anything else.)
You get a measly 6 sick days a year, all of which you'll get in January. This means getting sick in January is a lot less stressful than getting sick in December. Oh, and you can't accrue or bank any more than 6 days (when I started here, you could bank as much as 6 weeks). Use it or lose it; it won't roll over. So people come to work sick a LOT and spread it around, especially as it gets later in the year.
The cliquish, and frankly somewhat sexist culture, is becoming worse as the company grows. If you're a young, eager guy, you can expect to be able to remind the male partners of their younger selves and get a LOT more opportunities from potential sponsors and mentors. If you're a young, eager female, expect to work twice as hard as your male counterparts while they take credit for your work. Well, you CAN take the route of playing the daughter they never had (or wish they had), which is creepy and will make you feel like you want to shower after work every day. The female partners are great and encouraging, but they are few and far between; and with the aforementioned opportunities mostly going to men, likely to stay that way. And if you bring up constructive review feedback about these younger men who are viewed as "outstanding" by the "right" people, be prepared to have your comments ignored.
