Pros
Work life balance is unquestionably one of the reasons that Amex retains talent. Most teams work from home on Fridays. Casual work environment, people are extremely nice to one another, sometimes to a fault. People are really warm and they are all about the coffee chat culture to help advance your career and learn more about different business units which is great when you feel like your work scope is narrowed.
Cons
Sometimes its not just the work you do, its what people perceive of your work that can get you ahead. People are expected to move roles every 18-24 months generally on the lower levels (analyst, manager) but its a political process at any large organization. The rating system is down on a bell curve and people are rated against their peers who all have absolutely different goals and metrics. I wish Amex was similar to Goldman Sachs and abolish rating their employees with numbers, it is outdated and archaic. Lack of diversity in business teams is really frustrating at times. Being a part of a monoculture doesn't allow different thinking. What I also am disappointed in seeing in all of these glassdoor reviews is the lack of transparency in the "displacements" that goes on at American Express. Amex goes though many reorgs, usually 18 months on a wider company scale, but still occur on a yearly basis for many business units where people are reshuffled around. With this reshuffling, people are told they don't have jobs any longer, "displaced" and they have to apply for other roles within the company. I thought I was joining an established Fortune 100 company that has been around since the 1850s, but Amex still lays people off under the guise of being "displaced" and that still doesn't sit well with me. So people applying to Amex should be cognizant of that. No bonus for analysts which is super disappointing since they are the backbone and unsung heroes for many of the great initiatives going on at the firm.