Mastercard reviews

Work-Life balance is a problem, exagerated depending on the organization or line of business. Avoid Operations or project management work if you want to work less than 60 hours a week. The culture is at odds with itself, with cumbersome and frustrating processes and politics. Some senior and VP management have a style of compliance (my way or the highway) and do not want questions or input, and they make bad decisions at conflict with official Corporate strategy. There is a culture of blame when something goes wrong, and people are busy protecting themselves rather than solutions.

Tech is a nightmare to work in here, especially if you are trying to innovate. The culture and workflows of technical systems/processes themselves highly incentivize micromanagement. Simply put, it's hard to do a good job, because the correct employee empowerment, tools, and acceptance of ideas from engineers across all ranges of disciplines and experiences simply do not exist at Mastercard. Seldom do I encounter technical limitations, but politics very often grind projects to a halt for months or even years. Also, a vast majority of management does not come from a technical background, so vision is more derived from buzzwords than an understanding of techical value and desired results; precision is lacking when it comes to steering technical goals. If you like to coast doing the status quo with a decent salary, Mastercard may not be a bad choice. But if you want to innovate, try new things, and be excited by what you're building in your day to day job, look elsewhere.