HBK Investments Reviews

Pros

Salary, Bonus, and Benefits. Excellent place to learn the hedge fund industry.

Cons

Progress in software development fell behind after the economy tanked in 2007. Went to maintenance mode only.

Advice to Senior Management

For CTO: you have a lot of good ideas. Work more with the developers; not just with directs.

Pros

Money is everything at HBK and yes they will pay you well. Do a good job or your bonus will suffer and all it takes is a single minor infraction. They did cater lunch and health benies were ok. Tons of money pumped into technology. Everyone in the office had at least 2 monitors and there were more servers than employees. It is very prestigious to work in the Crescent buildings in Uptown Dallas.
Severance was very generous.
Beer Fridays were a cool touch.
Xmas parties were legendary.
Any beverage you could want for.

Cons

Mandatory 15% of your base salary goes to a SEP IRA.
Annual review structure changed to make it hard to even get a 3 out of 5 rating (5=GOD). This was done to limit bonuses but sold as an employee benefit.
Waist-high cubicles and glass office walls. ZERO privacy, for anyone.
Culture was stressful, cold, and unfriendly. No one says "hi" passing you in the halls. Your manager is nipping at your heels checking your every move. Don't react fast enough to a problem after-hours and you will probably hear about it on your review.
Don't you DARE go even slightly against anyone in upper mgmt or you are done for.
They let many good people go and kept the ingratiators.
Working at HBK was among the most stressful times in my life. I'm glad I was "good" enough to be hired by them but you couldn't pay me enough to go back.
Work/life balance is about as bad as it gets.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the people you hire do what you hired them to do! Listen to their ideas and take their advice. Stop the knee-jerk/ reactionary policies after any little thing goes wrong.
Evaluate the true worth of the "yes men" you've hired.
CTO: You told the entire IT department that it would take many consecutive quarters of down firm performance before there would be any cuts in IT personnel. You then laid off 20% a few weeks later.

Pros

Good pay
Great benefits
Ability to work independently with little to no oversite from management
Company provided lunch daily
Good work life balance

Cons

Little to no direction from senior management
Little interaction between departments
Business model unsustainable in current environment which led to massive layoffs across multiple rounds

Advice to Senior Management

Direction needs to come from top down

Pros

One of the top dollars in Dallas, lots of smart people around

Cons

Management overhead is to heavy and disproportional

Advice to Senior Management

make a middle management at least as professional as regular employees

Pros

Its all worth it when you see the year end PnL ... otherwise some might consider it too stressfull for longterm

Cons

Hectic Pace. keep looking for the next oppurtunity, continuously evaluating where your positions are. You need to keep on top of your game always.

Advice to Senior Management

Pretty much nothing that i can suggest. Keep pushing but keep it real. Remember those guys are human as well as being staff!

Pros

Easy work, good pay, nice facilities

Cons

Incompetent management very self absorbed and short sighted

Advice to Senior Management

Evaluate the accounting department management

Pros

GREAT FOOD and wonderful coworkers

Cons

Limited growth opportunities and career advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Provide career paths for all employees

Pros

The firm definitely takes care of you in terms of monetary compensation, medical and dental benefits, and other benefits that you would expect. They want the best employees and they attract the best by paying way above their competition. They also have great catered lunches every day. Everyone raves about the food - although it's easy to gain a few pounds on the job because it is so good. They also paid for parking which apparently is a definite plus in Dallas, Texas where parking in the downtown and Uptown district is expensive and an absolute luxury to have paid for you.

Cons

The hours are absolutely terrible. Most employees get there around 6:30 or 7:30 in the morning and literally do not leave the office unless headed to an off site meeting during the day until 6 or 7 in the evening or night - remember - lunches are catered so there is no reason for you to leave during the day! Speaking of lunches, this is the downside, while you might get great, great food, you never get to see the light of day during the winter months which can be downright awful. The people are pretty arrogant there. It's one thing to be smart but a whole other thing to be boastful about it. One word sums up the HBK atmosphere - toxic.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to senior management would be to get rid of the severely political atmosphere in the office.