MetLife reviews

I dont know where to start. Hands down the absolute worst place I have ever been. Lets start with the MetLife culture. Everyone knows when you first start a job you are reserved and cautious how you act to your new fellow employees. Then you open up and show your personality when you are comfortable. Well at Metlife the Culture is that awkwardness of your first day of work EVERY SINGLE DAY. No one looks at you in the eyes when walking by in the halls. Everyone purposely avoids each other to avoid any social interaction. And you have to pay for instant coffee, gym and expensive cafeteria prices. Now on to the jobs. Lets start with their trading group. First off its an insurance company so no making profits on their trading desks (Its a cost center rather than a profit center) Old antiquated systems with software integration that doesnt work. Their trade booking and operations platform is hilariously cumbersome with only 2 people in both of trading and ops that knows how it works. Couple that with a unbelievably O.C.D helicopter manager and you have a recipe for procedures that are redundant 4 times over. Now i guess the reason that is needed because you only work 4 months out of the year. Seriously there are weeks where you can just sit there and do nothing and that ok.. because there is no meaningful stuff to do there. The work is garbage and meaningless and the fellow employees are just plain disgusting/horrible with no personalities. I am surprise they work on a trading floor as they deserve to be put in a windowless room in the basement to never be heard from again. Investments- If you are a research analyst in the investments group you can not escape from the bs either. No recognition, ridiculous timelines and requests. No one is happy no one is learning anything usefull. Everyone is constantly talking about leaving and openly looking for other jobs. The funny thing is that in this group and in trading everyone is from UPENN and Georgetown all very great schools. Metlife thinks they can attract "great talent" in reality its desperate talent. The only reason any of the students work at metlife is because we are in the recession and everyone is desperate for a job. Because of that 95% of the analyst class leaves in less than 2 years!!! That is an insane turnover rate for such a "World Class" organization. Oh yeah MetLife has an analyst "Program" that lasts 4 years.. once the 4 years is up you are out.. they havent changed that in years because they have noticed that everyone leaves at the 2 year mark... No!!?? really?! You mean to tell me you hire exceptional talent, bring them on and provide absolutely ZERO room for growth and everyone leaves??? I am shocked! Lower management - If you are part of management and you dont have an actual office you will get a promotion once everyone 10 years if you are lucky. Learn to play politics cause apparently with no work to do you have alot of time to practice your back stabbing skills. Upper Management is a joke here - half the guys are MetLifers (Poor souls) and the others are from the street where they could no longer succeed and need a place to plug their deflating ego. It is incredible how this place is still in business. They are resting on their size and there is no other reason why they are still around. I can go on and on about this but I believe this review and every other review that has some detail paints a fairly consistent picture. Unless you are absolutely desperate do not work here. IF you do then keep applying to jobs else where from day one. I am going to end on this note: When EVERY company wide MANAGER MEETING starts with your guest speaker (current manager) saying " When I first started at MetLife I didnt think I was going to be here for this long.." you have a serious serious problem. I heard 4 different Senior management start their speeches that way. Seriously??? Even they cant believe they got trapped at such a company for so long.

Every company has its cons, with MetLife being no exception. Met is a stodgy behemoth that is slow to make decisions. Many departments and managers are married to outdated processes. Projects and even relatively mundane tasks often involve steps that are unnecessary and add no value. A "we've always done it this way" attitude is pervasive throughout the company, even amongst the rank and file associates. In many ways, Met simply can't seem to get out of its own way. Mid-level and senior managers are often not held accountable for mistakes, since a failed $300k project can easily be absorbed by a company whose annual profit measures in the billions. Those same managers then turn around and make similar blunders on other projects. The company is very siloed, and networking opportunities are few and far between. Senior management is woefully disconnected from the daily goings-on of the low level workers who shoulder the grunt work. As another commenter mentioned, there is little insight given regarding senior management's way of thinking. An inside joke is that the company's name is actually MeetLife, since getting anything done requires meeting after meeting after meeting. Salaries are at best market average; this is done intentionally. When we were acquired from a competitor, Met eliminated our transportation reimbursement, even though our office is located in a commuter town and many of the employees travel a good distance to work. The explanation given was "most places just aren't doing that any more." Complaints over the lowered pay grades of jobs that are being relocated to North Carolina were defended with explanations such as "that is the market rate for that job in the area." Evidently paying competitively for top talent has gone out of style. Met is currently undergoing a restructuring, and the transitional planning has been poor. I was already looking to move to a new job and was not surprised when my position was eliminated, but I was shocked that it was done with no transition. I ended up leaving with several supposedly important projects up in the air. Former colleagues tell me that they can't work many of the things that I used to do, and one "mission critical" project where I was serving as the project manager is completely dead because the torch wasn't passed to anyone, yet apparently senior management still expects it to be delivered (this makes no sense whatsoever). While I sympathize with the rank and file associates who are now burdened with these problems, I feel vindicated in that I repeatedly complained to senior management that the processes that I supported were never given sufficient financial or personnel backing.