Pros
- Looks great on your resume and you will often receive headhunter calls (though many employees come back) - Fellow employees are usually very smart and well educated, but rarely overly competitive or rude - Relatively easy commute if you live in Manhattan; - Jobs are fairly clear in responsibilities and narrowly focused, so you can develop deep expertise in a subject - In most cases, you have to take all of your vacation (use it or lose it) within the year - Lots of non-financial resources to leverage (local discounts, on-site gym & medical center, online financial planning) that you'd expect froma big company - 6 month Global Rotation Program, Externships with Small Businesses, and many other volunteer opportunities (consulting, board service, Junior Achievement, etc) all encouraged and supported - Not a stickler on face time as you can be pretty flexible in working arrangements (working from home, coming in late/leaving early for valid reasons) - Work/life balance is what you determine it to be - usually you can get out by 6-7pm each day and not be expected to log-in from home unless you're really trying to move ahead quickly - Feels like a smaller company given culture is relationship driven and people rotate often
Cons
- Pay lower than direct competitors and can vary wildly between employees doing the exact same job - Tons of processes and redundancy with little training other than baptism by fire - Pre-Amex experience is not really valued and not a lot of focus on external competition - Poor performers at all levels and out of touch senior leaders are retained and rarely asked to leave - MBA hires aren't treated consistenly at all; some move up to director in 2-3 years and others get stuck in multiple rotations. - There are no clear rules regarding performance management or promotion - ratings are simply based on having 1 big (and often heavily self-promoted) accomplishment and being well liked rather than comparison of standard metrics; analysts and managers rotate to new positions based somewhat on ratings and interview performance, but who gets the job/promotion is based more on what more senior employees do behind the scenes aka "informal sponsorship" - putting in phone calls/e-mails, vouching for your skills aka "likeability". This has led to a lot of frustration, particuarly on who gets promoted to Director and Vice President. You can have more years of experience at Amex and "stellar" performance reviews but others are hired because of personal connections they've developed - and the company does not apologize for it - May be difficult finding a balance of time to network with employees and getting your actual work done