Bank of America Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

- Good work/life balance.
- Paid O/T.
- Easy to take time off when needed.
- Decent bonus.
- Laid back environment.

Cons

- Can be difficult to get raises/promotions.
- Not as many opportunities compared to the NY/Charlotte branches.
- As a trade support analyst, can be difficult to make the jump to trader.
- As trades are in NY, difficult to see the bigger picture as a trade support analyst.

Advice to Senior Management

- A little more clarity as to how to get promoted and recognized.
- More feedback/direction/connections to furthering one's own career.

Pros

For the job I did, the pay & benefits were competitive
But I know the money part must depend on one's role.

Cons

You're nothing but a number. Promotions is subjective, then that's the way corporate environment seems to be. Too many changes, top down, and unstable.

Advice to Senior Management

They don't hear anyway, so what's the point.
But since I need to write some advice here...treat employees not like numbers.

Pros

1) Pay for Performance - if you're a top performer, you're rewarded well w/comp;
2) Work from Home - once you've established yourself, you can apply for their full-time permanent work-from-home program;
3) Vacation - 4 wks paid vacation for AVP and above;
4) Professional - most people are professional and decent to work with, discrimination and harassment are not tolerated w/o punishment
5) Work/Life Balance - while everybody out there says this is important, I think BAC puts you in control of this more than other companies (ie - if you want to work 80 hrs/wk to get a bigger bonus, they'll let you.. but if you want to work 40, they'll let you do that too - but you won't get the big bonus)

Cons

1) Highly corporate and political - if you don't learn or have the patience to navigate the environment & "play the game", you'll be unhappy;
2) SLOW - while there's never a shortage of things to do, it takes forever to get anything done. If you're impatient with slow-moving processes and approvals, you'll be unhappy

Advice to Senior Management

Bank of America has been dragged through the mud in the media. Continue to improve image so that it can return to former reputation. Continue all Associate programs - they make Bank of America a great company to work for.

Pros

Large organisation where you eventually will find where your area of expertise will be acknowledged.

Cons

Should offer a more international mindset for its domestic associates.

Advice to Senior Management

Acknowledge the power of your associates with international backgrounds and make use of them to expand your global footprint. Think outside the box.

Pros

BAC has higher pay than competitors, better benefits that start sooner, quality training program and support for new associates, a less-than-expected amount of competition within a branch and is respectful of employees. I have seen a banker turn sales over to another banker simply because he had met his quota and she had not yet; unheard of in a normal pay-for-performance-based environment. Metrics used for evaluation are readily available and easily show where improvements can be made.

Cons

No cons that are specific to BAC, only to the retail banking industry. Quotas that are unrealistic for products that are hard to differentiate from the competition.

Advice to Senior Management

The senior management and leadership is doing an excellent job in its treatment of employees, especially considering the current economy.

Pros

You can find just about anything your interested within the Bank to move your career towards as it is a huge company requiring just about every skillset. Working remotely and flexible work environments have become very popular with the Bank.

Cons

The size of the company often makes it hard to navigate major projects or to feel like you are in control of your career.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to focus on associates at mid-lower band levels that actually do the backbone work of the company, versus upper management rewards and traders.

Pros

I worked with Bank of America a couple years ago PRIOR to the major mortgage meltdown... it wasn't a bad place to work. Management wasn't the most competent, but there was quite a bit of earning potential.

Cons

Minimal vacation time
Work some Saturdays
Inadequate management (this is a hit or miss... some managers were great, others weren't)

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more praise and benefits to employees at Bank of America and stop reducing the commission structure every six months

Pros

It's a great place to work if you don't have any career ambitions. Environment is very laid back, lots of freedom, management is quite flexible. Nobody cares what you do as long as your job is done.

Cons

Very depressing environment as everyone is absolutely indifferent to their jobs, colleagues, and company they work for. Very hard to stay motivated.

Advice to Senior Management

There are no company financed X-mas parties, however, prospect college grads are getting lavish treatments. Don't you think there is a huge disconnect here? All culture is deeply rotten and needs to be revised.

Pros

Very good benefits and work life balance. Has any products a customer would want, therefore it is easy to cross-sell.

Cons

Be prepared to work for an extremely large corporation with several layers of bureaucracy. It is very hard to see ideas though from start to finish....

Advice to Senior Management

HR needs to do a better job training managers on how to communicate with their subordinates on the importance of job evaluations and prospects for internal career progression.

Pros

Benefits, discounts, for those employees that are able to take advantage of it .. there are flexible schedules and back up child care options.

Cons

Too large of a company .. too much red tape to get projects/ assignments / general job duties completed in a reasonable amount of time.

Advice to Senior Management

Give me a raise!