The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Investment Banking Firms

Posted by: Tara Kalwarski on September 18

A “tri-weekly” highlight of comments from current and former employees about those companies that BusinessWeek has ranked among the “best places to launch a career.”

Given the events of the past few days, including the buyout of Merrill Lynch and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (both of which were included on BusinessWeek’s recent list of top employers for recent grads), what better time to take a look at what current and former workers at investment banking firms are saying about these employers?

THE GOOD (Some of which should be taken with a grain of salt, given the job titles of the posters.)

"Jamie Dimon's dynamic and intuitive leadership style is inspiring, and makes many employees proud to work at the company (avoiding the subprime disaster is one such example). Jamie has a very strong executive leadership team. Employees enjoy progressive benefits such as same-sex /domestic partner health insurance coverage, paternity leave and lactation programs/private rooms for new moms at many locations. Salaried employees get four weeks of paid vacation, - all full-time employees get 6 sick days, 10 paid bank holidays, 2 personal holidays. Top performers are rewarded well financially and with greater work flexibility (hours/work from home days)."
—posted by a JPMorgan recruiter on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 9

"Stable, high salaries, fast-paced. It is a large company so lots of opportunity to move around. Good perks such as 401k matching, pension, vacation days, free museum access, etc. There's a surprising amount of independance of how to solve problems here." —posted by Deutsche Bank VP on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 12.

"People - Smart, Talented and Motivated. As they say its all in the culture :) This is my first job and I have been here for 4 years, so I don't really know whats out there to make a fair assessment. But working here with such talented people is challenging and a great learning experience. The firm stresses on it unique culture and the phrase "long term greed" is often used. I have bought into it and I do believe that if you are committed and you stick it out here, the rewards will be worth it. As a disclaimer I must say a lot depends on your group, manager and the business you support." —posted by a Goldman Sachs senior analyst developer on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 12

THE BAD

"Advancement is not an easy task here, it is difficult to take on more responsibilities in order for an entry level employee to prove his or her capabilities in anything more than performing daily tasks. So far (I have been with the company for less than a year) it is not easy to get exposure to senior management. I have not seen and don't feel like there is a big effort to cultivate talented young professionals into management type roles."
—posted by a JPMorgan operations specialist on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 14

"Oppressive environment, over-confident employees, too much stress. It is also annoying to constantly hear the constant self praise that Goldman gives." —posted by a Goldman Sachs analyst on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 11

THE UGLY

"High Comp but you have to rob widows and orphans."
—posted by a Deutsche Bank director on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 2

"Advice to senior management: Sell when you had the chance. Now we're all screwed out of jobs." —posted by former Lehman Brothers analyst on Glassdoor.com on Sept. 15.

Got any Good, Bad, or Ugly comments about an employer? Drop me an e-mail.