Bank of America Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

Worked there part-time while I was in college. It was good part time job with flexible hours and good pay relative to other part time jobs in the area.

Cons

If you're trying to develop a career, there really aren't too many opportunities in the customer assistance department. However, other BOA business units may be different.

Advice to Senior Management

Make opportunities for promotions and movement around different departments of the company more readily available. Don't really have any other advice.

Pros

Good salary, better than anywhere for a customer service type position. Super health benefits and other benefits. Good amount of time off offered.

Cons

Took away bonus program and other types of incentives to employees. Don't provide enough support to off shifts in-house. Management changes too often especially on-off shifts. Work load so heavy never get to know the people you work with. Trying now to merge regular customer service with the fraud group and its not right -- can't concentrate on fraud issues when we are trying to figure out someone's APR!! Stop holding Fraud dept to such hard time constraints -- its hard to figure out if someone is a perp if we are busy watching the clock to see if we are over the short short time limit. Hold times to other depts should not count against time limits which affects our reviews. The whole system needs an overhaul -- what's important is helping the customer, not throwing them off the phone so you can adhere to your call times!

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to making your employees happy. Get back to realizing only by hiring the best can you stay the best. Stop with the wasted meetings & updated training classes outside our work areas that mean nothing & go back to giving the little incentives & bonus programs that kept people very happy in the past. Allow us to do our jobs & stop wasting our time. We are there to do a job & do it well -- let us! Realize the whole "adherence to call time" is ludicrious in some depts especially over nites and off shifts -- give us off-shifters more help & you'll get better results!

Pros

The time off is very good and the salary is competitive. There is room for growth if you suck up to the right people and are willing to sell people products they don't need.

Cons

You will be micromanaged every day. All of your calls are listened to and scrutinized in front of your peers and management. They want you to sell your soul to make a sale.

Advice to Senior Management

It is uncomfortable and embarrassing to let any and everyone know how well there peers are doing in the position.

Pros

Excellent place to work, associate satisfaction big priority. More benefits than most company. Good morale good leadership bad cafe, facilities starting to get run down

Cons

facilities starting to suffer, not all depts adopt bac associate satisfaction policies or assoc measurement mechanisms. depends on where you work

Advice to Senior Management

keep going, dont be afraid to be ahead of the curve, when an opportunity arises grab it. dont be so cautious about what people will think

Pros

Little overtime. Tremendous 'work from home' ability. Generous benefits. Lots of internal opportunities.

Cons

Much of your time will be wasted in meetings ranging from the unnecessary to the absurd. Knowledge and abilities outside your pigeon-hole are not understood or recognized. Extremely meeting-centric. Be there or be square. Only way to find out what is going on in large projects is to sit in meetings that literally last all day, day after day. Technologies are often outdated. Extremely stingy on the expense allowance. Extremely limited travel opportunities. Dissent is generally not welcome.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the performance reviews. They accomplish nothing. We have to report our time every week, yet nothing is done with the information. Throttle back on the 'recognition' and other propaganda. Less is more in that area. Do away with 'customer listening' a COMPLETE waste of time.

Pros

Ability to learn and move through different business areas within the Financial Institution arena. You are measured and judged on your results, perform and you will be rewarded.

Cons

Very large company and can be difficult to navigate. Speed to market on new and innovative ideas is slow due. Silo like organizations are not conducive to an efficient structure.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the core aspects of the business and perform them at a best in class level. As goo as diversification can be, it can also be adverse.

Pros

Hard work is rewarded - people who are wiling to keep a positive attitude and work hard get recognized! People who become obsessed with their performance or stuck in fear of being layed off would do better to keep their heads down and work hard. Be careful of setting your own destiny by becoming distracted. Networking is critical make sure people know what you do other than your immediate manager.

Cons

Currently poor perception of the company in the Media makes it a struggle to feel like you have meaningful work. However, if you seek it out you can find out about the great things the company is doing too!

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the optimisim and continuous communication!

Pros

Flexibility to work from home. I worked ona team where I could literally pick my own schedule so long as I got my work done. I had a laptop and could work anytime I wanted.

Cons

Politics and cliques. Too many small groups of insiders. There were too many small groups of people who knew about confidential things before they happened.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep communications more open about serious issues. Jobs were being cut yet, we were told "everything was fine".

Pros

Clean offices (and bathrooms), onsite fitness center, some ability to work from home, fairly decent pay and benefits, flexible schedule, free parking, and there is a good attempt by the company to put their money where their mouth is for being progressive.

Cons

Not much of a career path, at least in my area. The banking industry as a whole is on shakey ground, so it is not a very stable employer, especially with all of the bail out monies received from the federal government. Their main site is downtown, requiring the payment of the city wage tax and a longer commute.

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to conservative banking practices when it comes to financial planning for the bank itself.

Pros

BAC is a great place to learn the business of banking.

Cons

Recent acquisitions have increased likelihood that you will be laid off if you are in a sensitive business area.

Advice to Senior Management

You should be promoted based on your performance, and the performance of the business unit in which you work.