American Express Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

Good work/life balance is important

Cons

Compensation is lower than market

Pros

Great training program, the name is well respected throughout the industry, especially the marketing function. Few better places to start

Cons

As with any large company there was a large bureaucratic management structure that really inhibited fast innovation. To be expected though

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on promoting high performing individuals regardless of seniority, as well as sourcing ideas through non conventional systems and processes.

Pros

Many nice people, despite lousy conditions.

Cons

Unless you're one of The Management Boys, you can forget about raises or advancement or respect.

Pros

Great efforts on goal setting and personal development
Formal structure

Cons

Difficulty in moving through the organization, especially getting promoted from Sr. Analyst to Manager
Too much beauracracy

Advice to Senior Management

Give us a chance to show our strengths

Pros

Relative job security...low level of stress...decent time off policy...option of working from home...decent people to work with

Cons

Low pay...low tech...pretentious PMP process...difficult to market self after tenure at this company...
gradual deterioriation of fringe benefits (insurance, office space)

Pros

amex is a good place to start to get solid work experience and an in-depth background on database marketing. It's also a good place to cut your teeth managing people (often interns) and networking.

Cons

It can be very political. The commute into the city is not for the faint-hearted! if you're coming from the NJ suburbs or outer boroughs.

Pros

Work life balance, recognition, good work enviornment

Cons

passive aggressiveness, you're promoted based on who you know and not how well you work

Pros

Fairly easy to move around in company and acquire new skills.
Looks great on resume.
Training is available you can take advantage of.
Great place to work if you can "build and leverage relationships" well.

Cons

Corporate culture here is intense and very conformist.
Politics are important here.
Very hierarchical.
Extremely competitive environment.
Salary is not as high as other financial services companies in NYC.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve the salary and compensation package to make it more commensurate with other financial services companies in New York City.

Pros

great culture, career development opportunities, work life balance, a lot of career related training, a lot of different support groups

Cons

long commute to the city, very large organization and sometimes hard to navigate and get things done, salary is not competitive in NYC

Advice to Senior Management

Need to make salary competitive to other companies in NYC to retain the best talents in the company. In general I am very happy working for Amex

Pros

good benefits, employee satisfaction, good team dynamics

Cons

they actively recruit for young, Ivy League candidates, once you are over 50 years of age and are not already in upper management you are no longer looked at with favor

Advice to Senior Management

Value the input and contributions of older employees