AllianceBernstein Reviews

Pros

Respectful, supportive, positive and professional environment.

Cons

Due to the economy, difficult environment but expecting to improve.

Pros

-Great benefits
-Free amenities
-Some very bright people

Cons

-repetitive work
-long hours
-it is a customer service/call center position
-

Advice to Senior Management

Give more responsibility to your employees, more/diverse work equals happier employees

Pros

Exposure to a lot of very smart, hardworking people. Very much a mentoring environment. Everyone wants the company and their colleagues to succeed.

Cons

Constant layoffs have made it a dismal environment to work in. Employees (and the public) have been waiting for a company turnaround for years and it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Communication from executive management is very poor.

Advice to Senior Management

Make an impact. Get involved with performance. Stop being overly generous with your own salary and instead give a portion of it back to employees.

Pros

Good hours
Great location in midtown Manhattan
State of the art cafeteria
Interaction with some very intelligent and hard working people

Cons

Compensation is below industry standards
Promotions are extremely political and not based on a "meritocracy" as stated by senior managment
Low morale due to constant layoffs

Advice to Senior Management

The constant layoffs have taken a huge toll on the company in terms of employee morale
The promotion process is a mystery and management is too eager to hire high level people from outside the company
A new management style is needed desperately

Pros

-Good work/life balance
-Able to work with some really talented and intelligent individuals
-For a junior person, you are able to learn alot about the industry and gain some meaningful exposure to the financial industry

Cons

-Little to no growth opportunities unless it's a lateral move
-Compensation is well below market
-Recognition is only given to those "superstars" within the firm
-Cost cutting is very apparent, so much so that most employees are still thinking, "So, who's next on the block?"

Pros

Nice cafeteria, good location, and some nice people to work with. Easy hours and, uhh, a good cafeteria. And it has a good location.

Cons

constant layoffs, dismal morale, the feeling that the company's losses will not end, poor promotion policies, HR policies that were obviously written by someone looking at the minimum the law allows in terms of employee treatment. And low compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to go in too many different directions at once without considering how you'll actually do it. Stop thinking of employee care as just a gimmick and start actually caring about employees.

Pros

- the training and the research resources were excellent
 - worked with a lot of other very smart people
 - nice dining situation

Cons

- paid less than most other companies
 - hours were terrible
 - communication from the management was terrible

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees. Pay them better. Provide them with a better work-life balance and they will stay.

Pros

Work/life balance
Smart people
Great cafeteria

Cons

Senior Management
Morale
Company Performance

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to the drawing board

Pros

* Easy hours
* Nice offices
* People are are nice to one another and respectful
* Fancy cafeteria
* Organization rather flat compared to sell side banks

Cons

* Below market pay
* No pay increase and very limited bonuses in recent years, company under pressure to continue to cut cost
* No growth for junior people unless come back from B-School
* Promotion mostly political
* Management conservative on implementing new strategies and just watch asset bleed
* Too many old guards occupying top level posts and no upward mobility for talented younger people
* After 2 years there's nothing more to learn and your skills starts to get old
* Management doesn't have a clear strategy to revive the franchise
* Management says one thing and does another, communicate convoluted messages
* Endless employee and performance reviews just provide a justification to pay no bonuses and lay off people

Advice to Senior Management

* Cutting cost and laying off people won't revive the franchise, the way out is to have an investor's view to drive the company

* Sanford Bernstein's research excellence does not flow into portfolio investment process, too many blockades in the way

Pros

There are a lot of really bright, committed people there; the investment team and mid-level management are trying very hard. Day-to-day interactions are generally quite good. Innovative investment strategies are being developed but it doesn't always seem like they're implemented.

Cons

Rather like being a well-paid orc in Mordor -- you may like your fellow orcs, but there's a pervasive sense of doom and a sense that as far as the top management is concerned, you're cannon fodder. It's gets a bit futile after a while.

Advice to Senior Management

Can we get Lew Sanders back? He might have been wrong that last time, but at least he communicated and there was a decisiveness that's been lacking since he left.