Pros
- You get to test yourself to the limits, including sacrificing basic human rights and foregoing basic human needs such as eat and sleep. Sometimes you get to sleep in office and just ask for some rental discounts from your landlord :). - You get to learn to be super independent and how to survive this harsh environment and become super self-resilient. - Survive this and get an offer elsewhere and never look back.
Cons
- There are too many obstacles in this industry, what made it worse is the inherent risks within the firm that deter the firm from overcoming the obstacles. e.g. low pay, unattractive remuneration compared to banks and other competitors, very cash sensitive company (they will try their level best to undercut you and exploit your pay whichever ways), very long work hours, very steep learning curves. And hence, this is not for the faint-hearted. - You'll face a lot of scenarios of moral hazard, people will definitely want to steal your credits and play politics. - You are pretty much on your own if you do not have any favourism/protection from a manager who really supports you from his/her heart. Again, it depends on your luck and the type of skills you wish to further cultivate, i.e. soft skills or hard skills or both. - Overall, the challenges cannot be resolved on your own. So you better think of an escape plan working here. Not to mention, you need to be a babysitter to spoon feed the newer generations who can't even be canned or scolded and need everything be coated in honey and sugar (let's embrace the diabetic generational shift :D ), while at the same time managing some more demanding bosses above.