Pros

The work schedule and load are both consistent.
The benefits are very good.
Supervisors in individual departments are personal and genuinely care.
There are events throughout the year that promote unity within the company (parties around the holidays)

Cons

The management is very confident in their ability to run the company and stay above the bottom line with the least amount of effort possible.
The pay raise after a year or 9 months based on performance is almost (90%) never actually granted.
The opportunities to move up are few and far between.

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Stable work environment. Strong tradition, good benefits

Cons

low Salary, Stale workload, Limited mobility

Advice to Senior Management

Provide better clarity for the direction of the firm. Management is often tight lipped about their ultimate goals in the industry

Pros

Generally speaking, it offered a good work/life balance. Additonally, it's a great place to get experience, and then parlay this experience into a better paying position elsewhere.

Cons

The company lacks cohesion (especially on the asset management side).

Advice to Senior Management

Consolidate operations

Pros

Wonderful people to work with, great deal of talent. Good life/work balance programs, flex time. Great opportunity to merge two companies/product sets.

Cons

Surprising that so many of the legacy Bank of New York employees are so negative towards the legacy Mellon employees, especially those who have been there for a long time. "Lifers" have a lot of talent and dedication to bring to the company and not all are complacent. It seems that from many of the New York comments, they seem to be less willing to work as a team with the legacy Mellon employees. The legacy Mellon employees are making an effort to work with the New York employees as a team.

Advice to Senior Management

Take advantage of the talent you have between the two organizations.

Pros

Solid company, relatively unscathed by meltdown, good reputation.

Cons

Large and impersonal, feels like "The Office" at times. Difficult to get things done. Lots of "red tape."

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees! There is much talent that is under the radar.

Pros

very good culture, supportive of work/life balance while achieving desired results from employees, slow stable steady growth. willingness to grow the business

Cons

focus on slow and steady also means too much deadwood allowed to take up space, lack of top down communication about direction, lack of growth opportunities for employees. too much focus on low margin business lines,

Advice to Senior Management

improve performance reviews and feedback, improve the development of empolyees

Pros

The company is very healthy comparatively speaking. Of the numerous banks that were forced to receive TARP money, BNYM was one of the first to repay, as well as issue debt without the FDIC guarantee. BNYM has been a leader thus far in their category of being a "Banks' Bank"

Cons

While there seems to be adequate cash-flow due to BNYM recently acquiring certain smaller shops slightly outside their core business, the employees have not seen much of this splendor. After salaries being frozen, BNYM recently decided to also cut it Tuition Reimbursement from an industry leading 100% down to only 10k a year. While this is still a handsome reimbursement, the 100% is what I feel drew quality applicants. With this new development, they take the risk of losing quality employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Although shareholders matter, you must also think about the employees that create that value. If money is being spent taking care of public relations purchases, and not on the people that comprise the company, be prepared to start slipping!

Pros

The corporate culture of the bank is a joke. If you have half a brain and are willing to stay in the same department for years, there's a good chance you can become a VP.

Cons

Pay is horrible. Management is horrible. The entire place is a joke when it comes to working in Finance. Avoid at all costs.

Advice to Senior Management

The bank needs to start paying better if they want to attract better employees. Until then, the bank will continue to be mediocre at best.

Pros

The senior leadership team was very impressive (more so than local leaders) and understood the effort required to build a local office culture aligned with the corporate culture of BoNY. BoNY also offered a reasonable work schedule and I enjoyed a good work-life balance.

Cons

Transforming an organization's culture is a long process and the Houston office has too many A&M alumni and functionally weak VPs from Chase's former CDO business to appeal to outsiders. Some VPs acted as if they were still at A&M or Chase...what a pity. Also, the low-walled cubicles made the office feel more like a call center than a professional environment.

Advice to Senior Management

It wasn't always clear who was in charge at BoNY: Deloitte consultants or functionally/technically weak BoNY VPs.

Pros

Outstanding benefis, plenty of room for advancement and pay-increases beyond the usual merit bump (just don't expect it to be dropped in lap, you need to express interest and show that you're serious), and many opportunities for job-specific training, mentoring/shadowing, and higher education. Very challenging projects wtih aggressive timelines that will expand your experience (and your resume) by leaps and bounds.

Cons

Departments are often short-staffed in relation to the workloads - A project that should have 10 team members may only have three or four. If you're not flexible and willing to balance multiple roles and pick up work that falls outside your 'comfort zone', this organization isn't for you.

Do not expect to keep your head down, work a normal 9-to-5 and get ahead at this company. Those types of jobs are plentiful at BNYM, but you won't move up.

The hard work pays off, but expect 10-12 hour days, off-hours conference calls (this is a global company with offices in practically every time zone), heavy travel, and plenty of 'working weekends'. You have to be vocal about what you want and what your career goals are, or management will assume you're comfortable with the status quo.

Still plenty of politics due to the merger between Mellon and BofNY - enough that it can occasionally hinder progress. Learn to play nice in the sandbox and try to bridge the gaps between the legacy-company teams, and you'll be fine.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay close attention to your staff-to-workload ratio : Your best and brightest are working themselves into the ground to order to keep producing excellent results with fewer resources. People can only keep that up for so long.