Bear Stearns Reviews

Pros

Pay is good
Prestige is great
Responsibility is high
Network is strong
Always challenging and intellectually stimulating
at the center of the financial universe

Cons

can't trust coworkers
Top Management only concerned with counting dollars
coworkers will do anything to get a better review and better bonus than you

Advice to Senior Management

Try risk management and coming into the office. Try motivating people in ways other than paying the top 5% of people all of the bonuses

Pros

comp, exciting work, middle of financial industry's darkest moments

Some senior management better than others, good, smart people to work with

Cons

It went out of business, threatening to bring the whole financial industry down with it. Some senior management was abusive.

Advice to Senior Management

Next time, cut off the pipeline, sell high, have political connections (a la Goldman Sachs) and don't allow your fund investors to make margin calls.

Pros

No micro-managing. It looks good on a resume. You can get a little training on their Bloomberg terminal if you want.

Cons

The MD's didn't care about anyone but themselves. It was hard to come in every day and greet people who didn't care about your work

Advice to Senior Management

I would ask that they try a little harder to provide a position experience for those who choose to spend their time there.

Pros

Very hands off. Allowed you to work independantly and treated you as an asset. Had a good corporate culture there.

Cons

Other than the fact it went bankrupt? It seemed to be the lesser of it's peers. It was driven by one business and when that failed, it did too.

Advice to Senior Management

Management should have diversified the business ventures to which it allocated capital. There also should have been a better recruitment program

Pros

actually its a good job. high salary with reputation in the past. Also it's less competitive to get a job from this company when comparing with Goldman

Cons

you will expect that there will be a long working hour. It depands on how you like the field of investment banking

Advice to Senior Management

there is a top to down management. Top management are friendly but it may be the freind friendly enviroment that make the compnay not so competitive

Pros

people are nice and environment is dynamic and active. During the last few years with Bear Stearns, I met a lot of great people there. As a number 5th investment bank firm (of couse it is the history), the long history of the firm brought me into the world of trading US investment bank environment. I was working in Security Transaction department and be responsible to equity trading. Different from other investment banks I worked, here they worked in the way of relationship first approach and I am not the right person to comment if it is a good approach as there is no chance to change and test it for differnece. But I loved the enviroment indeed to work out the business in friendship and brotherhood.

Cons

less organized and with more ad-ho issues to handle

Advice to Senior Management

pay more attension to the middle level staff growth

Pros

Great advancement in the industry, lots of learning, steep learning curve if you like that. Everyone told me that investment banking was the way to go and I can definitely see why. You learn so much and a lot is expected of you right from the start. You are surrounded by very very very smart people and you can learn a lot from them too. Then there is also the pay. You get paid a lot for the hours that you put in and it looks amazing on your resume to have a company like this on there to speak for you.

Cons

The fact that you really have no time for your family and friends really takes a toll on your lfestyle. I was only an intern there but I didn't have much of a chance to see people I cared about or work out.

Advice to Senior Management

Give more feedback to junior people.

Pros

It was just like the other investment banks, banks which no longer exist in the form they had when I worked on the Street.

Cons

The downsides to working at Bear included the lack of interest from management to the impact of their decisions on those under them. I worked for a boss who took 100% of the credit for the activities of his staff and instructed his staff on how to cover for his time outside of the office.

Advice to Senior Management

I would suggest that senior management learn to pay more attention to the skills and opinions of those under them and to never forget that they just may not be the most important or intelligent people in the room.

Pros

The atmosphere was great. I loved to be around my co-workers. The job rewarded me as much growth as I wanted. I was given much responsibilities that people of my same age could not imagine. Although, things turned south starting last summer, I did miss my tenure with Bear prior to that.

Cons

I think the pay is on the lower side of the Wall Street pay scale. Management is very capable but needs to pay better severance for the people they decide to get rid of. In addition, there is not much professional support network that promotes growth and advancement for young professionals.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to compensate your talents better.