Deutsche Bank Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

Work life balance & holiday time
Globally recognized investment banking experience
POSSIBILITY of moving within the bank
Availability of training for full time employees (not contractors)

Cons

Operations is not a good match for anyone wanting personal communication, particularly during the midst of headcount cuts in response to the financial crisis. Also, little team communication exists...people would rather email than walk down the isle on the same floor.
Red tape; bureacracy

Advice to Senior Management

Foster more team, spirit and communication in order to improve slumping corporate morale. This morale is particularly low in non client-facing roles

Pros

Prestigious name to have on cv.

Cons

From an IT perspective, 5+ years ago Deutsche was a great bank hiring the best people. Most of the good people have since left, leaving behind the dead wood. Why?
- no longer pays top money
- bureaucratic organisation makes it hard to get things done
- creativity and innovation are stifled
- jumps on the nearest bandwagon but is always behind the curve, never leading
- too focused on cost cutting, and often in the wrong places
- too many layers of ineffective management
- decision makers sit in ivory towers and do not engage with the troops until after decisions have been made
- cronyism
- lack of 360 reviews resulting in poor quality management team
- replacing good quality, experienced on-shore staff with cheaper off-shore staff
- poor quality IT systems

Advice to Senior Management

Time for a new management team to take over

Pros

Good work life balance, if you are able to manage your manager and not be overloaded! Good support with learning, courses etc. Good remuneration and benefits.

Cons

Very slow for change to happen. Too many committees, meetings etc. They waste money on branding exercises within the company. Promotions are not handled fairly

Advice to Senior Management

Review the promotions guidelines to ensure good staff are not overlooked and lost to competitors. Stop internal marketing to employees as this is a complete waste of money.

Pros

Reasonable benefits, esp. pension, enthusiasm to improve

Cons

Poor knowledge management and heavy internal processes, poor execution on strategic objectives

Advice to Senior Management

Improve knowlegde management, IT release management and streamline processes

Pros

The bank put a big effort on employee developments, help to charities, good sponsor on art activities

Cons

It is not very visible what to do to grow with the bank and lack of motivation coming from Senior Management

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management should make sure that their objectives are propagated down

Pros

Relatively flat hierarchy
Lots of courses
Good pension

Cons

An element of politics in some decision making
Many areas in IT are a bit "green field"

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to your reports

Pros

Meritocracy
work/life balance
support internal transfer

Cons

Unstable due to offshoring to India

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people who work for you.

Pros

Work life balance, meritocratic culture, nice people, if your good management will help you move, management very approachable and open willing to help, treat graduates well

Cons

Some politics..like everywhere else, Constantly changing and can be unsettling for people who enjoy consistency in their role

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work!

Pros

ok salary,
international experience
looking good on cv
progress to higher level of management is easy and then you can get a decent salary

Cons

politics as many people mentioned here. specially for Middle office
 transferable within the bank is VERY HARD. specially from middle to front office

Advice to Senior Management

Auf Viedersen!

Pros

The company's name on your CV carries a lot of weight. As a company, they are highly technical, and very good at what they do. One of the best houses on the street in terms of performance.

Cons

The culture is geared towards individual success and achievement. The environment lacks a team work ethic, and as individuals the staff are not the most pleasant group of people I have worked with.

Advice to Senior Management

An attempt should be made to encourage team work and managers need to be aware of people who attempt to attract attention by playing the 'corporate game'. This is counterproductive in the long run.