No career growth - Senior Software Engineer Discover Employee Review

1.0
Apr 20, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice PTO, 401k match, tuition reimbursement and overall benefits are good. Year end bonus is also good but at risk as a portion of it is tired to company performance. However they have paid at target bonus level in the last few years.

Cons

There is very little opportunity for growth especially in IT. Upper management comes up with new initiatives every few years and creates lot of hype and confusion in the process rather than solving real problems. There are too many VPs and Directors that come from project management background. They don’t seem to understand how to run an engineering organization. Some of them probably spent their entire careers at discover and don’t have any other exposure. There are some really good leaders too, it just depends on which team you are working. Only promotions over the last year have been at the upper management level. Lot of people are leaving for better opportunities and it’s really sad to see talented people leave.

Explore other reviews about Discover

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

One of the most significant advantages of interning at Discover is the opportunity to work with massive, high-stakes financial datasets within a highly collaborative and mentorship-driven culture. Because the company manages millions of consumer accounts, you gain direct experience in how data-driven decisions impact risk management, credit modeling, and fraud detection in real time. The environment is known for being supportive of early-career professionals, offering structured learning paths and exposure to modern cloud-native infrastructures like AWS. Furthermore, the company’s strong focus on work-life balance and a clear pipeline for converting interns to full-time roles makes it an excellent "foot in the door" for anyone looking to build a career in fintech.

Cons

On the other hand, the primary drawback often stems from the inherent bureaucracy and heavy regulation of the banking industry, which can lead to slower project lifecycles and "red tape." You may find that a significant portion of your time is spent on repetitive data cleaning and maintaining legacy reporting systems rather than building the cutting-edge predictive models you might expect. Additionally, because Discover is a massive organization, your scope of work can sometimes feel siloed, making it difficult to see the end-to-end impact of your analysis across different departments. Finally, the current landscape of the industry means that internal shifts or large-scale corporate restructuring can occasionally lead to uncertainty regarding team directions or long-term project stability.

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