FactSet Reviews

Pros

The atmosphere is unbeatable and you truly feel like part of the team. You work one-on-one with professionals in the investment field and can get first hand experience with all aspects of the finance field. Everyone has to a positive outlook and seems to generally enjoy what they do.

Cons

After consulting, you have opportunity to move on to another department or into management, but if the options don't suit you, you hit a dead end as you very quickly realize you are "outgrowing" consulting.
Also, the structure of management in consulting is such that managers aren't directly involved in the accounts you, as a consultant, work on. So they know little to nothing of the accounts beyond what you tell them. It is hard for them to understand the difficulties to face and try to help.

Pros

Encourages independence, creativity, and ownership

Cons

Bad compensation. Departments are disjointed, you could have no idea what the person next to you does

Pros

Strong organizational culture. Results-oriented leadership. Strong direction. Great benefits, including generous vacation policy, health, dental, and eye coverage and free lunch!

Cons

Somewhat risk averse culture - the big idea might never get realized but the small incremental ones will. Some view the company as a starting point, not a long-term career option which can have a negative impact on the morale of the best performers.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to communicate large initiatives down the chain. Continue to pursue process improvements as well as new, quality revenue opportunities.

Pros

- Relaxed atmosphere. Get your work done and no one will ask questions.
- Good place to learn from intelligent, friendly people. The technical library is very handy.
- Some teams offer quick advancement opportunities.

Cons

- Previous employees have used FactSet as a stepping-stone. I believe this is partially due to the fact that they are no longer being challenged. Engineers love challenges and you can only go as far as to create your own, but then what after?
- Salary inversion.
- With certain managers, you must constantly remind them how hard you work.
- The recent hiring blitz has introduced some less than qualified engineers into our talent pool.
- Some product developers are very capable and easy to work with; others are rude and constantly demanding or incompetent.
- There's no such thing as a free lunch. It's part of our total compensation package and the quality of the cafeteria has been declining. Some employees avoid the cafeteria altogether.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to what your current employees have to say -- We are your best asset. We've endured long hours, cutbacks, and economic crisises.

Pros

Overall FactSet has nice people who work very hard. Many of my closest friends are people I met at FactSet and I think most people stay at the company a lot longer than they would somewhere else because of the close ties that they forge with their training class.There is a young culture mainly because the company recruits consultants right out of college. There are also great health benefits and a 401k match program.

Cons

Management (at least in my office) was very strange-- Catty, gossipy, and not very confident. In fact, there were too many managers and it was not really very clear to most what each did. I know this sounds common, but the office went through many changes that were never really explained and most were afraid to voice concerns out of fear of retaliation. The office was a place were smart, hard-working consultants were not rewarded and sub-par consultants who did not rock the boat were quickly elevated. This resulted in many of the smartest people leaving for greener pastures. In fact, my office alone saw huge levels of defection to clients and other companies. Most left to either (1) make LOTS more money ( myself included) or (2) go somewhere where they felt appreciated and intellectually challenged.

Advice to Senior Management

Top management needs to bring in experienced managers and not just promote top-performing salespeople to management. Just because someone was a good salesperson does not mean they will be a good manager. High levels of attrition in any office in a short period of time should be a red flag that something is wrong.

Pros

Good salary
Transport Program
Good work life balance
Good HR

Cons

Too Crowded
Queues in the Canteen (Queues everywhere)
Its a call center. Not a software company
Hardly any innovation. Using old windows 32 API to develop user interfaces.
Don't join the C++ /SQL team.
Not enough diversity. Disengaged workforce.
Horrible location. The DLF building in Hyderabad is too crowded and small.

Advice to Senior Management

None. Stop being a typical financial services company. Try to upgrade your technology. Improve your canteen/infrastructure services.

Pros

work life balance, free lunch, free snacks and drinks, surrounded by very intelligent and friendly coworkers, good health coverage, stock purchase program, low stress work environment

Cons

employee morale is falling, attrition is rising, bureaucracy prevents rapid innovation from happening, key talent is getting ready to leave while the company worries more about recruiting than employee development and retention, little motivation to go above and beyond

Advice to Senior Management

Some recent policies intended to control operating costs have caused resentment, jealousy, and infighting between groups. Senior management is widely perceived as being out of touch with lower level employees.

Pros

good work-life balance
stress free Job
free lunch Monday-Thursday
full health benefits
401-K match and stock plan
lot's of responsibility only months into the job
excellent exposure to clients

Cons

- Compensation and promotion policies here are a mystery
- If you ask questions, you will hear the same generic answer from all levels of management over and over again
- Pay is sub-par, with no performance bonus and small raises
- You will not be rewarded for working hard
- Has become more bureaucratic in past couple of years

Advice to Senior Management

Work on employee development rather than recruiting. Pay employees competitive salaries or bonuses and quality of the product will increase

Pros

The benefits are above average, and the work life balance is extremely gracious, especially for a job in the financial sector. Compensation is fair, given what is asked of the engineers, and the culture is extremely favorable.

Cons

Compensation is also a con, because it could be much higher. It's important to keep in mind though that Factset doesn't ask too much of their engineers so paying them top dollar would be silly. There's a lot of turnover in upper managment in the software department and it feels like most people view Factset as a stepping stone instead of a career.

Advice to Senior Management

More emphasis on creating a culture that excels at giving feedback, trust your employees and treat them accordingly. Find EFFECTIVE ways to make Factset a place people want to wake up everyday and work at, not one they put up with because the lifestyle is good

Pros

Financial rewards are very good indeed when compared with other software companies in London and the rest of the UK, particularly the starting salary. Other benefits are also great, there is a good pension scheme and free lunch, snacks, fruit and drinks are provided every day.

There are lots of opportunities for growth in both technical knowledge and career (such as management roles) for those who perform well (I was able to achieve a senior role and management position within a few years thanks to high performance). Employees are encouraged to take on projects outside of their immediate responsibilities in order to help them grow, which also brings some interesting variation to the job.

The environment is definitely engineering focussed and very relaxed, senior managers chat and have lunch with new recruits. There are regular social events that are fully paid for by the company, things like go-karting, bowling, etc, which are great fun and many people regularly socialise together after work too. This kind of environment has been very hard to find in software enginering jobs in London in my past experience.

Cons

Pay is not as good as the banks (although it is close), this is a software company, if you want to work all hours of the day and be rewarded with a huge pay cheque then go to a bank. FactSet makes up for this by being focussed on engineering and encouraging a good work / life balance.

The company can be a little slow in identifying poor performers and acting on this, which can seem unfair if you are doing very well.

Advice to Senior Management

Really, the main thing FactSet needs to do is to get its name out to potential employees. Most people I speak to have never heard of FactSet and this puts them off joining when they have an opportunity at a better known company. Overall, I think they would probably be better off at FactSet and the company needs to do more to stop this being a factor.