Pros
NONE. If you are lazy and lack technical skills, this place is for you. Full of silly politics from non talented individuals who think they are stars. Form over substance types apply here you will do well, actual proven stars need not waste their time here, if you don't conform to your boss's inefficient ways, they will retaliate with termination or if your lucky a demotion. I ran out of space on Cons, so for the reader, a bit of clarification. Pros for lazy untalented individuals who want to get by with only knowing the right people. Forget about having communication or public speaking skills, or real accounting tech skills or knowledge, no just show up if you already know somebody here, and you can coast and be a yes man , you will get a promotion. If you have no clue about fund accounting, have no fear, your free pass is automatic here as long as you know the right people, and I am not exaggerating here. They like to terminate people for no reason before 6 months ,who they may not like due to people trying to make things more efficient, no do not do that here, you must drink the kool aid and be a total follower of mediocrity. If you think a Credit Default Swap only has one leg, just because its more convenient to just reflect the Periodic fixed premium stream that the Buyer Leg pays for protection to the Seller Leg ( since the Seller leg only pays out in the event of a credit event or default of the underlying fixed income security , and its easier to not represent a contingent payout event in the system) instead of the correct answer two legs, simply because every swap has two legs Swap 101 basics, then you belong here. If you do not understand how to be efficient with using sunguard macros in conjunction with red flag exception systems and the accounting system, then you belong here. If you think doing recons on micro soft excel spreadsheets are faster than one click macro oles that can be set up via Sunguard connections, and help you with a real time analysis, then you belong here. It perplexed me that they would prefer slower methods of getting work done when the fund accounting environment is always loaded with various deadlines daily, so fast is essential.
Cons
I went to a managers meeting at Northern Trust my first month there, and I must say it actually felt like I stepped into some "CULT" like pass me the kool aid event where some lady from HR was at the podium in some Preachy style of presentation to the crowd of managers from various different lines of business. I also observed the culture there more in depth where the "suits" from the other office would have these presentations that sounded more like info mercials of motivation. Bottomline, this place wreaks of Form over Substance, if you are lazy , and like to talk a good talk, and rely on keep your job via knowing the right people as opposed to performance on the job and team collaboration, this place is for you. There is a trend here of others pointing out that hey so and so is a "superstar" too frequently without that so called super star actually proving that are the real deal. As I said form over substance, its a clique thing purely here, and if you are an outsider, no matter how experienced or good you are , they will not give you credt. They will only prop up their happy hour buddies or weekend buddies from work as "superstars". Its amusing, seeing people proclaim others or themselves as "stars" before actually proving it via performance. Finally, if you come from a collaborative environment where ideas and input are welcome from all team members without worrying about retaliation, well this place is not that. You have to conform to a cult like fashion, and if you variate or try to help with a more efficient way of doing things, they retaliate with politics, to demotions, to even termination without a reason. Not a healthy place for true superstars to contribute to the team goals, it's all conformity here. They like talking a good talk here, but execution is not efficient, and they do not grasp being efficient or working smarter instead of mediocre harder methods.