Pros
Their salaries are comparable to the big for retail banks, which is great. Additionally, they have generous parental leave and vacations.
Cons
“There is a lot of opportunity to improve operations” and “we strive for work/life harmony rather than balance” is code for toxic culture and ineffective systems and workflows. Outdated methodology in banking should be no surprise to most people who have worked in the industry, but what was more concerning was the toxicity. In my last meeting at the company, I witnessed a senior leader yell over a woman repeatedly, interrupting her, and using unprofessional language. Routinely, it appears, women are in this position and when I inquired about the not-infrequent browbeating from Sr VPs, I was told the same thing repeatedly: pressure is high and deadlines are approaching, so the offenders were just letting off steam. I am certain of their response: we take this very seriously and we have mechanisms internally to protect against this. Do they? I utilized a confidential HR service and was told the same thing about yelling and bullying: it’s unprofessional but not a flagrant violation of rules. It’s tempting to go into deeper detail about the antagonistic culture and bad-work-life balance, but the short answer is that long hours are actively encouraged (yet the official line is to take time off, etc this is not it in practice), hierarchy is observed religiously (don’t be too casual with them! They’re a Sr VP!) and there seems to be a strange tattletale culture in the company: people regularly will communicate with managers in a non-transparent way about something they see as an issue in someone else. Feedback is valuable, but it loses its value if there is no transparency. Lastly... oh those meetings. How much do you like meetings? 20+ hours weekly in which you’re NOT expected to contribute but simply to be seen? If you can tolerate this, then your patience could be a great fit. For others, this is a major detractor.
