Pros
Being a diversified company, State Street offers many positions from which someone can garner a lot of knowledge. However, once you're in a position, you are pretty much pigeon-holed, and are expected to do your job and not expect to aspire to something better unless they thought of first, or unless you are related/friends with someone.
Cons
If you are happy being just a cog in the wheel, and are willing to go along to get along, then State Street might be the right place for you. If, however, you are ambitious, then the many political structures you have to navigate to get ahead are particularly disappointing. Local management often hide behind Boston's skirts in order to avoid any unpleasant topic that they don't want to deal with. By the same token, Boston takes a hands off approach to operations. Great ideas get filtered so tight they are strangled. This is not a learning organization as claimed.
