Capital Group Reviews

Pros

Retimrement program (MRP) is unique and provides a great "bonus" each year.
Salary and bonuses are higher than average
Managers and employees are respectful of each other, even when there are differeing points of view.

Cons

So many management and org changes I cannot keep up. I've had 4 managers in 3 years, so far.
The MRP and high compensation seem to keep people here longer than they should be. Many people are completely unhappy around me but stay for the pay. I have to admit I am in that category as well. Prior to 2009, this was a great place to be. Plenty of staff to handle the work, all kinds of training available to us, and good technical decisions were made by the technical groups (of which I am a part). Things have changed, since new management was put into place, and the layoffs of 2009.

Many technical decisions have been made by upper management and handed down for implementation. Most of these decisions, as you can imagine, haven't worked out so well. But we don't feel free to speak up and challenge anything, as we are not asked for our opinions much any more. Some that have gone against the will of management are no longer here, so people have stopped speaking up entirely.

Workload has increased 200% since 2009, and our headcount has decreased is not allowed to grow. We are working 50-60 hour weeks just to keep up with the work. Management believes outsourcing is the answer, although the implementation will likely not be until 2012 in our group. Outsourcing is a cost cutting measure that has come at a price, paid with our morale, effectiveness, and job satisfaction. Not sure I'll be around to watch in 3-5 years, when we will have lost many of our best people, and the company will be struggling, trying to keep their infrastructure stable while depending on off-shore resources that know nothing about our business.

Trainig seems to be not a priority any longer, as many of us have not had any formal training for 2 years. Training is only atteneded if a critical project requires it and there is money in that project's budget. Alternatives have been sold to us, such as "peer training", which of course does not work well, as no one has the time to organize this in any effective way.

Advice to Senior Management

I know you expect attrition in the next year due to greatly increased workload (ANXI mentioned this), but please provide some reason for us to stay. Our immediate management paints a bleak picture of our future here, with no hope of regaining any level of job satisfaction close to we used to have. One person from my group has left recently, and there will be more soon if nothing is done. We cannot continue this level of effort much longer, and it seems the company has no interest or concern with it. We need immediate changes to improve our work/life balance, or we're going to lose many more talented people soon.

Pros

Benefits great
Beautiful offices
Great peers

Cons

Don't care about retaining the great workers
No mobility
No oversight

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize exceptional workers for their actual work and not those that bow down to you when you visit or are around.

Pros

Overview: Working under the IT Group is different than the investment group. The core investment group in Capital Group responsible for decision making and execution account for less than 15% of the headcount. The rest of the personnel are in the support units - programmers for investment applications, business analysts, tech support personnel (desktop, application, hardware support), not including a large Share Holder Service group responsible for answering mutual fund share holder inquiries (this department was decimated during the massive 2009 laid off).

The investment group is very well compensated and is managed by senior portfolio managers and analysts.

Cons

The technology group and support units are undergoing transformation to make them less integrated with the business group (therefore easier to swap off-shore consultants to back-fill attrition).

The new IT group's management are professional corporate management veterans - excellent in cost cutting and in a way, making roles more cookie cutter and interchangeable. Long time personnel relationships between IT and Business were severed before teams were re-organized and reduced. To see senior management pulling this off was quite a feat. Morale was hit during the reduction and maintained at that level.

The overall changes in recent years made the company much more profitable, but it also made many experienced programmers, business analysts, support personnel, and analysts leave the company. The room for growth under the current structure is limited due to the on-going cost cutting operations, as most openings are due to re-organization changes rather than new roles / positions being created.

Advice to Senior Management

The higher-than-industry-average compensation is a double-edged sword. Many less-than-motivated people stayed to work for the company because of the "golden hand-cuff", and the company cannot hire more people because each associate's expensive compensation package. The company starts to feel like Longshoremen association in disguise.

Pros

- Good benefits especially the MRP, but you have to drink the Capital Kool-Aid for 6 years to become fully vested
- Good reputation in investment management industry, although most outside of industry have never heard of it
- Very smart people in most departments

Cons

- No real "management vision" until it was too late. The departments had complete autonomy and when the money stopped rolling in, then they realized they had big problems.
- Too caught up in the "Capital way" of doing things (i.e., employees working in other sectors can't possibly advance to work in portfolio management, despite their accumen, because that's "not the way we do things anymore."
- Little room for professional growth
- Again, no real leadership. Any "president" or "ceo" is just that in title only. Most things done by a committee of investment professionals with no real management experience.
- Low morale

Advice to Senior Management

Despite all the cons, you manage to stay afloat anyway, but that might not last forever. Value the talent you have, because if not, given PIMCO's ambition and move into equities, talent can easily flow to Orange County and YOU could be CRUSHED!

Pros

Good benefits package of pension and bonuses.

Cons

Work environment is super structured and there is little flexibility or creativity allowed.

Pros

Truly outstanding benefits for their employees

Cons

Very limited amount of information shared with employees of the organization
Very few opportunities to move outside of entry-level position. Too much interest in moving to another department signaled dissatisfaction to management and led to being black-listed

Advice to Senior Management

Be explicitly candid in expectations for entry-level employees

Pros

Good benefits and good training. Good people and nice offices. Good communication between coworkers. Implementing a new program for on the grow and growth development. Good wellness benefits.

Cons

No growth opportunities. Don't care about educational background, will take anyone. Takes advantage of associates at times and does not reward hard workers when they should.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within and prepare for the future with strategic initiatives. Look for high performers and reward them. Know who can be the future of the company and who will just be there to do the day to day grunt work.

Pros

salary and benefits
high integrity -- clients are always first
quality of co-workers

Cons

Not really a downside -- but investment group is highly compensated and subject to
much more lenient work expectations in many cases
HR department does not support managers and is of poor quality generally. Given no real power with upper management even though the company is a people organization (services).

Advice to Senior Management

Help managers weed out very bad employees.
Take better care of your people. It is more than money and benefits.

Pros

benefits, people, good retirement plan, good health insurance, education benefit, vacation days, paid holidays, flexible schedule, challenging work, clean environment

Cons

unfair promotion practices, cliques, managers save salary increases for themselves, unfair pay scale. HR not an advocate of their employees

Advice to Senior Management

work on these areas. form committees to work on these areas - unfair promotion practices, cliques, managers save salary increases for themselves, unfair pay scale. HR not an advocate of their employees

Pros

Good Compensation and benefits. Retirement plan.

Cons

No Career Growth and inconsiderate management