Pros
BNY Mellon is at a turning point in which it is transforming the way it does its work. This means massive efforts to digitize, automate, and change the way the bank does its work. Some very interesting things are coming out of our new-ish Digital group, and the effects of their projects are seen across the enterprise. This place can be a good (and easy) place to be hired out of college and its easy to quickly get exposure to senior leaders working on some of this transformative work. If you have dreams of going to a top business school or being a consultant or working at a tech company in some sort of product or strategy role, you can easily gain experience here and parlay it into something better.
If that sounds interesting to you, do know that reaching out and networking is entirely at your discretion. Most entry level jobs at BNY are in Operations given the nature of BNY Mellon's work as a custody bank, and Operations at a custody bank is some of the worst work in financial services. Do not expect for the bank to expense meals, or for your coworkers to be driven and knowledgeable of financial services. Most of your coworkers will be hard workers, but they know only their functions and BNY Mellon's operational systems. They do not care or know anything about the greater markets in general and the job inst set up for you to be concerned about the state of the markets. You are expected to settle your trades, or process cash movements, or process a corporate action, and that's it. To some, this may be great, but to others, its horrific. This is NOT front office work and it doesn't really set you up for the front office after 6 months of time. This is not glamorous work; there are no bonuses, the pay is almost always below the average 2019 college grad salary (currently $51,000), there are no Christmas parties or lunch paid for by the bank, no coffee on the floor, no fancy work areas. Again: this is not glamorous work, but there is light at the end of the tunnel...
Digital and data and technology are the next best things in business, and as I mentioned above, BNY Mellon is investing in it at the right time. There are massively talented people working at BNY that work on this. There is a viable strategy in joining operations out of school, standing out of the Operations crowd through curiosity, networking, and hard work, and moving within 2 years into a strategy related role on the business side of things. From there, as long as you get some tangential digital experience, you'll be golden for top-MBA programs. Almost all your coworkers will be edging toward someday being the ops manager of their tea or a similar team, but very few are looking to transition onto the business side of things. Pay is better, exposure is higher, and they value operational experience, but YOU need to do the networking and be very proactive in your personal studies. When the opportunity comes your way, it pays dividends for your career when you can quote the most recent BCG or Accenture banking report and actually understand what it means for the firm or the business line you're interviewing for. That kind of business acumen, coupled with a good knowledge of the firm's operations will net you huge opportunity if you can stick it out in Operations for a year or two.
Cons
If you do want to do more than Operations but are not the kind of person that can put yourself out there to constantly take on more work and meet new people that are far outside your business line, it is very easy to get stuck in ops for a long time. That being said, its not that operations is terrible. For many, it is easy work, no presentations, no clients, no dress code, no stress, but its not for those that want to have an impact.
