Pros
- The presence of this company in Northern Ireland has definitely contributed to the economy. - When you join as a graduate there are many young people at your level so there is good potential to make friends and join clubs (Gaelic Football and Toast Masters) - If you join as a graduate they do have a good technology academy teaching you coding fundamentals and an overview of the various areas of the investment bank sector.
Cons
- Management had created a culture of blame amongst the teams, very often I would be on call with the team from Belfast and then another team off site. It was quite common for me to witness a snarling match between the two teams and just generally poor attitudes. - I will say also that communication between teams was generally poor. There was never a sense of greater collaboration with the other sites. Everything seemed hostile all the time. - The managers in my team were very poor communicating or checking up on newly joined graduates in the team. Very rarely got a hello or a greeting out of any of them - was a "cold" environment to work in. - Within my team there were a lot of blame games going on as well. No one was willing to show true leadership and take responsibility for when things went wrong. - My experience at this organisation in general was that you were just a number for management. There was no sense of a team who wanted to achieve something together, was more like a team of managers trying to push their own agendas. - I will say also that due to the sure size of Citi and the many business sections it is divided into, you will feel like a very very small cog in a behemoth of a machine. You will probably specialise in a very small area, where you will tend to do the same repetitive task day in and day out. Flexibility to move across the organisation is possible but for me was restricted. In contrast to this if you worked in a smaller company for example it is likely you would use both front-end and back-end coding stacks. You would probably have a chance to share and implement your ideas instead of obediently following one manager unchallenged. - There was nearly nothing that was inspiring working in my team or this organisation. The most inspiring day for me was when I handed in my resignation and walked out the front door. Note to potential applicant for Citi Belfast* I am summing up my experience at Citi the best way that I can. As you can probably tell I do not think very highly of this organisation. I have heard other people enjoy it here but for the most part this company has a reputation for being a meat grinder (certainly during my time). If you do choose to apply for a role here I wish you all the best and pray that you do not have the same experience that I had. Good luck in your career and whatever path you choose.