Scotiabank Burnaby Reviews

Pros

Strong corporate culture and structure

Cons

corporate culture can be rigid also

Pros

work life balance good pay job security

Cons

career advancement is limited- wont be able to transfer within different department

Pros

- Co-workers are fun people - Pension

Cons

- VERY poor pay, well below market - Fiscally irresponsible (announced Christmas party, only to cancel it in September claiming "no money" and didn't even have the respect to talk about it in our Town Hall) - EXTREMELY micromanaged (every last detail) - Goal to provide excellent customer service – with a time limit of only a few minutes before it affects your performance; nitpicky on “quality” to the point where some of the objectives are unattainable and you are openly compared to your co-workers during “coaching” sessions - Can’t even say good morning to your co-workers without getting the stink-eye for “chatting” - TOTALITARIAN environment - Best suited for kids fresh out of school who know no better; most adults would run screaming from the regime of management knowing that there are infinitely WAY better opportunities elsewhere

Pros

*This is actually a review for subsidiary of Scotia Bank Scotia Dealer Advantage in Burnaby, BC and not Scotia Bank itself, but had to select "Scotia Bank" as there was none (yet) for Scotia Dealer Advantage. Plenty of "moral boosting" activities like pizza and Chinese food lunches, Annual team Meeting, etc.

Cons

Fun activities do not compensate for: - shoddy starting salary - overly crowded 3rd and 4th floors with nearly constantly busy washrooms = no personal space, even on breaks. Isles where staff is situated often too narrow with people constantly bumping the backs of other employees' chairs - most annoying. - being blown on full throttle by air conditioning from fall through winter!?? - constant petty rules (2 separate 5-digit codes to enter into phone when first logging on in the morning, as well as umpteen other passwords and codes to enter when logging in to desktop programs and when stepping away from desk) - way too many nosy supervisors (which, I'm guessing is largely why the starting salaries for new hires is ridiculously low and not "at par" with other major banks) who all way over micro-manage (mine would actually call me whenever I was running late - something I'd never experienced in ANY OTHER WORKPLACE!) Felt more like I was back in elementary school!?? These many supervisors could often be seen giggling and engaging in non-work-related "gab fests" while the "underlings" had to have "nose to the grindstone." - you are required to open a Scotia bank account for direct deposit of pay. So in my case, every pay day, I had to first go to Scotia to withdraw 500/day of pay (that was my daily maximum allowed for withdrawal) and then deposit it to my primary bank. So at least 2 trips to 2 separate banks every single pay day = MAJOR INCONVENIENCE!!! - extremely high turnover

Pros

salary package include medical, dental etc. plus pension; position at west coast basically provided service support to the user departments; both in-house & east coast; its only an operational site at west coast; all development dedicated at Ontario.

Cons

not very much opportunities at west coast in terms of development; so far only users support, custom reporting and data cube enhancement. West coast satellite site operates by its own; and very few technical position. Probably its an operational site so not very interested in new technology nor new approach, such as data visualization for BI or Cloud based options you can forget it - if you managed to stick with the bank forever then its a good choice but if the bank decided to let go ( need to survive under its own political environment -> very high turn over rate) - then you may stuck with out-dated skill sets ; plus expected to work or check e-mail after hours or Saturday - that's why they will give you the phone on the top of laptop ( not to keep but need to return to the bank when your service is terminated )

Pros

Fair pay Decent benefits Employee Share Ownership Plan (Your contributions buy bank shares, bank matches %50) Pension comes right off your payroll Lots of perks working for a large bank Large variety of positions available

Cons

Can be cutthroat at times High pressure from upper management and executives Currently undergoing job cuts (streamlining processes and going digital)