Pros
Mastercard’s benefits, opportunities to advance, ability to be flexible to employee needs, focus on implementing new technologies, and the strong product focus makes working at the company enjoyable and keeps things interesting. It’s a great way to learn and advance. I was there for 8 years in various roles. I enjoyed the vision and culture under Ajay Banga’s leadership greatly, and was sad to see him leave.
Cons
The cons of working at Mastercard are the politics and bureaucracy in the Operations, Networking , and Employee Digital Experience (ONE) organization. The ONE organization has poor executive leadership that has a culture of nepotism/cliques and corporate bullying. My last few months, people who reported misconduct or disagreed with the CTO were put on a list and their jobs eliminated. Don’t report anything to HR or ethics - they are not your friend. There is a lack of training, and when large transformation efforts are rolled out, people are expected to learn on their own - they roll things out or start initiatives without much consideration for adoption and change management with their employees. I self taught and spent time trying to educate senior leadership to understand the impact - they expect a check mark and don’t really value the mindset of exemplifying change from the top. There is no work-life balance - I was working between 60-80 hours and wearing multiple hats. When I spoke up, and set boundaries, my manager’s behavior changed and I felt I had a target on my back in every meeting. There is a strong lack of company appreciation around employees. Some managers are good at recognition, but most not so much, especially senior leaders. There is a strong focus on meeting objectives without regard and reward for people going the extra mile. There is a lack of accountability culture, and when you hold peers accountable for the responsibility they signed up, they get offended and hate you. Coworkers like to throw people under the bus, and if you are a manager don’t share anything with your peers or direct reports - there is a gossip culture and people will do anything to get ahead. For women in tech, if you are assertive and just doing your job, good luck advancing as you will be painted like a villain while your male colleagues can get away with unprofessional behavior.