CME Group Reviews

Pros

It's become a huge force in commodities trading since NYMEX merged with the CME to form CME Group... especially with energies and precious metals so big in the news. Traders don't act like they own the employees. Better employee benefits.

Cons

Employee and trading floor morale is down in the gutter. Floors that were once occupied with staff are now empty halls. The majority in charge manages from Chicago, which is pretty frustrating if you work in New York.

Pros

the company provides a full tuition reimbursement and pays attention to work life balance.

Cons

there is not a rotational program in the company to allow employees to learn different aspect of the business.

Pros

Benefits are good. Lots of learning every day. There are also a lot of really good people working at CME.

Cons

Promotions and compensation not evaluated the same across the department and departments and management doesn't keep the department informed.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat people fairly and they will produce and be happy. Promotions and compensation should be applied equally everywhere.

Pros

One has the opportunity to work with hard-working and smart individuals. The nature of CME's business dictates exposure to many different aspects of the financial industry.

Cons

The tendency to hire outside talent for high-level positions is disconcerting and underscores a lack of in-house career advancement and development. Also, politicking can get annoying.

Advice to Senior Management

It is important to define clear pathways for employee advancement and the honus is on human resources and upper management to make this happen.

Pros

Lots of vacations & okay benefit

Cons

Too political, no compensation, no room for growth. Promotions are not based around any set criteria and given arbitrarily by senior management. No performance raises or even much praise for a job well done.

Advice to Senior Management

Need more motivating factors for employees to work above and beyond their required work load. There are no incentives and very little positive reinforcement. We are also competing with other companies that offer all of the things that are lacking here

Pros

The compensation and benefits package makes this company a tolerable place to work. The everyday people who actually make the Exchange function made my time there enjoyable.

Cons

CME Group's culture closely resembles the culture of a bad high school movie. Everyone who is in the "in-crowd" can expect to receive favorable raises and promotions, in spite of ability. Those who are "outsiders" can forget it. Education and ability are not equally rewarded, while incompetence is handsomely rewarded. And if you have the misfortune of belonging to a minority group, your chances of advancement are nonexistent. Before the misguided purchase of the CBOT, one of the bylines of the CME was "the Exchange of Ideas." Unfortunately, a lot of the prevailing ideas concerning fairness and diversity at the Merc resemble some of the more odious ideas which were prevalent during the 19th century.

Advice to Senior Management

There should be more emphasis on people rather than profits. If so, then maybe the majority of the talented people there would not jump ship like it was the Titanic.

Pros

Good place to learn technology and business (IT side).

Cons

Management needs leadership training. Some of the junior management have no clue on management and people skills. They can be traffic cops with attitude!

Advice to Senior Management

Send all management for management training and promote people to management positions based on their leadership skills and not for their technical talent alone!

Pros

There are some bright people but they are leaving at a fast rate.

Cons

This is the worst place to work for, for a good software developer. All the guys who can't program or can't do anything productive get promoted to Associated Directors. Then the same crappy folks are in charge of reviewing the performance of bright developers who do the real work ! It's like an inverse pyramid, they have got the rotten people on top, on an average there are 2 managers for each dev/qa/analyst person. Lot of red tape, politics goes on than real work, with so many Associate Directors it is normal to expect I presume.
One person takes the status, another person print it in excel and brings it to the meetings, another person reads it in the meetings, another person takes meeting notes and emails it out.
It takes on an average 10 years to build a new system cause of mismanagement and poor or no vision at all, that's why most work is maintenance/support work.

All these factors naturally tend to promote mediocrity.

Advice to Senior Management

Be real leaders and stop being too political and defensive.

Pros

Great Projects, people are really smart, and you get extensive knowledge of the financial industry.

Cons

CME does an awful job of handling their consultants. They treat them very poorly going out the door. I saw two instances where giving CME 2 weeks notice worked against those people. In one instance the consultant gave notice at 9 AM and was kicked out before 10 AM. The second instance a consultant gave notice EOD Monday and was let go EOD Tuesday. More than a few supervisors have less than stellar communication skills (i.e. snarky, rude, snide, condescending commentary is the norm).

Advice to Senior Management

The two weeks notice thing will return to bite you. It may not happen right away, but people will start to take notice and provide no notice if they decide to leave CME.

Pros

Good application of modern technology to achieve business goals and business is willing to adapt to it. We don’t have fight to bring in a new suitable technology.

Cons

Incompetent middle management. As mentioned in another review, lots of funny drama due to petty politics within the middle management (Up to the director level). Upper management should realize not all good technical people can be good managers and ADs. I am really surprise how some arrogant people are at that level.

Advice to Senior Management

Please listen to the feedbacks and take action . It is not worth just collecting it once in every 6 months.