Barclays Capital Reviews in United Kingdom

Pros

Very Challenging work environment(Positive); Highly motivated and bright peers; top brass clients who continuously demand for better and improved solutions

Cons

Some of the management has very old views in management style; hidden politics and hierarchy; HR influenced by the management

Advice to Senior Management

Should have better rotation programs and have HR little more independent from being influenced by management of each desk/ division

Pros

Good salary, interesting projects and a lot of good people.

Cons

Too bureaucratic even simplest tasks takes ages, constant redundancies. Very difficult to get promotion. Bonuses next to nothing.

Pros

Lots of talent, very driven people keen to progress professionally. Good bunch of people on a personal level,

Cons

Work v life balance is difficult

Advice to Senior Management

Just give us more information as to what's going on!

Pros

Great place to work. Talent everywhere. Innovation, ideas, people, the best of talent from the rest of the street mixed under one roof. Friendly and positive environment. Entered the inner circle and now among the titans

Cons

Still a way to go in terms on consolidating the technology infrastructure, and in bonding the groups. Still have some work to do in defining its own corporate identity, values and profile

Advice to Senior Management

Great in general. people talented that brought loads of experience from everywhere else. More talented than others at Goldmans and JPMorgan

Pros

secure, family friendly, good remuneration, good work

Cons

review process is farcial, as there is a fixed quota for promotions

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

1) Reputable employer to have on your CV
2) Opportunity to work with people from other countries

Cons

1) VERY political
2) Glasgow site recruited very quickly due to a strategic decision to bring a significant portion of Operations there (to lower costs). As a result, many of their management team were recruited from a constrained resource pool (a significant portion of management are former RBS employees who were made redundant after the bank nearly failed and it was nationalised). Some of the management team brought RBS cultural management styles into the business that don't necessarily fit the Barcap environment or its aspirations.
3) A need to improve resource management - realising what talent has to offer and utilising their skills according to their abilities and backgrounds

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure standard business practices are followed and management styles in line with the organisation are employed.

Pros

great atmosphere to work in

Cons

intense starting training which you have to be fully focused

Advice to Senior Management

to actually have more systems in place on the recruiting side

Pros

Good internal promotion opportunities. Competitive salary

Cons

Very institutionalised and lack of communiation

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees

Pros

BarCap is generally a meritocracy in that consistent effort and diligence will usually be recognised, if not financially. Internal mobility is good. You don't need to in crazy hours.

Cons

Linkage between effort and financial rewards is not always well managed. Senior management can be more focused on cost savings than revenue generation. People tend to leave to get a raise/promotion as internal processes don't keep pace with people's skills and positions.

Pros

We've woken up and smelt the coffee over these dubious hires.
This means we'll regain the original ethos and values

Cons

Too many new VP hires over the past two years has led to fractionalised activies, low morale, disfunctional team working.

Advice to Senior Management

A complete review of senior management hires against what was promised and what we now have to work with