Barclays Capital Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

Great name for the resume, nice office, nice bathroom

Cons

Poor comp, little job security

Pros

Access to analyst reports was nice, and there's access to some information that you can read. You can print free books offline to read. Also, the job was very easy, no real stress, just a lot of guys around you who are stressed. I finished my work in 1-2 hours every day, spent the rest of the day reading, and still got props for "working late".

If you are looking for a stable job in technology, go ahead and do this. Innovation, technical awesomeness, satisfaction, cutting edge technology? Look elsewhere.

Cons

No real good mentors for learning good coding practices, nobody to help you out on math, most managers I spoke to weren't too smart. This is one of the worse banks for benefits and for knowledge, hence the reason most ppl move out to better banks.

Advice to Senior Management

Probably need to be more intelligent overall. There are, of course, some good guys out there, but most of you are so stuck in your way of thinking you don't understand communication and delegation of tasks very well.

Pros

Much less jerk factor
Capable and smart colleagues all around
Compensation generally in line with industry average

Cons

The brand isn't as big as the other premier banks like Goldman and JPM, so that affects the type work we do. It means more pitching by managing directors instead of live transactions, so more meaningless work for junior staff. Also feedback is never that helpful, rankings are very political, but that's true across all investment banks.

Advice to Senior Management

Give greater client-facing responsibilities to junior staff to make them have more ownership in their work.

Pros

Many good people still around. Many pockets of good areas. Technology isn't too bad. It seems they don't really fire too much even for incompetence in technology.

Cons

Promotions are skewed against NYK office b/c of Lehman integration as quota exists.
Massive amount of politics that don't work in the best interest of the business.
Not a pay for performance as more a popularity contest as is the promotion process.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the BS in technology. Many questionable projects / software need to just be stoped. Technnology needs to be more accountable to the business. Very sneaky by hiding costs of 'technology' mandated projects and not having the business units pay for technology resources directly.

Pros

salary is competitive, good (but not the best) benefits, good work conditions, nice vacation and sick days; decent severance package (if you was smart enough to ask for it)

Cons

bureaucracy is growing steadily; promotion chances are minimal; internal mobility is a joke;
bonus does not depend on your performance; regular layoffs; IT technologies stack is outdated;

Advice to Senior Management

decrease bureaucracy and make sure grade A empoyees get bonus

Pros

Big company, benefits are very good compared to other firms. Name stands out on a resume.

Cons

I was in a rotational program for IT. The program is the worse of its kind. Most people that join this firm for training subsequently leave the firm. Employee morale is very low. HR (who manage the program), tell grads to basically shut up and sit down and take any seat Barclays gives them. This is the worse place to start a career, only come here if you have been working for 10+ years and need a place to retire.

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to your directs. Seems like no matter how much we tell you you're doing something wrong, you don't seem to care. Then you wonder why everybody is leaving the organization. Pathetic.

Pros

Has good cross-team cooperation. True global investment bank. Relatively new IT infrastructure. Good off-shore IT support. Not a lot of high cost legacy applications.

Cons

Overly focusing on cost cutting. Very bureaucratic in back office. A lot of exposure to EU and UK weakness and not as strong as HSBC in Asia.

Advice to Senior Management

Overly focusing on IT cost cutting. Very bureaucratic in back office, abusive ticketing system. Not even given enough hardware to run applications properly. Increasing fixed pay vs bonus was a big mistake, it kills motivation and drive to deliver more. Overly focusing on IT cost cutting. Very bureaucratic in back office, abusive ticketing system. Not even given enough hardware to run applications properly. Increasing fixed pay vs bonus was a big mistake, it kills motivation and drive to deliver more.

Pros

The benefits were good, compansation was in line with other firms. I received Base salary plus over time no bonus but the OT more than made up for it.

Cons

Management was horrible, all about face time. High turnover rate and low moral.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and maybe you won't have as much turnover

Pros

Infrastructure. Everything is in place. There are proper procedures for everything including a software that you wanna install on your computer.

Cons

In general Investment banks are not where you want to go if you are interested in core technology. I am a pure techie. So I would prefer a technical company to an Investment bank

Pros

- Great name to have on resume
- Nice benefits package (although new employees and ex-Lehman are not offered pension)
- Reasonable work/life balance - for an investment bank

Cons

- Compensation, bonuses - instead of a raise we are given "additional fixed payment", and that is considered bonus. It's complete double-talk. Either pay bonuses or give raises or both. But don't call a payment both a bonus and a raise.

Advice to Senior Management

End the "additional fixed payment" gimmick. Maybe it makes sense for investment bankers that make 500K and up, but it makes no sense for the average IT employee.