Goldman Sachs Reviews

Pros

Great brand name for your resume
Extremely intelligent people in all areas
Fantastic place to learn the business and build your network

Cons

Nebulous politics and lots of egotism
Sometimes feedback is ridiculous: not really meant to fortify you but rather break you into the cultural mold
Hours are brutal
You or your feelings have no value

Advice to Senior Management

Better take care to eliminate some of that headline risk. The firm is starting to lose its luster, so it's harder to justify treating your people poorly for the sake of reputation.

Pros

- Well managed
- Can do attitude all around you
- Bonus is a big part of your compensation and depends on yours and company's performance
- Smart people and great team work

Cons

- Overwork and poor work-life balance
- Too siloed that can hinder your professional growth

Advice to Senior Management

- Better work life balance

Pros

Best exposure to the finance & investment domain. Huge learning opportunity.
Good for those who have no personal life or friends - since they expect employees to work all the time.
Encourage employees to take up more and more responsibilities - practically unlimited.

Cons

No personal life - weekends, early morning & late night calls will make you feel as if you are working 24 hours a day.
Much of the decision making happens outside of India.
Too much bureaucracy and herd mentality. Managers just repeat whatever senior managers say -- in the name of consensus based decision making.
Not a company for true technologists or geeks -- since too many technical shortcuts are taken everyday succumbing to biz demands.
Old timers here are too proud to listen to any new opinions.

Advice to Senior Management

Better work life balance would make this company a much better place to work.
Also, too much of pride is only going to take company down the hill.

Pros

People are indeed top rate
Firm culture is quite cohesive and suprisingly small for its size
GS is truly an elite institution with a work ethic second to none, no nonsense and focused
Pay (well this year will be a tough one)

Cons

Newcomers mostly at a disadvantage- political equity extremely important to advance career
Work to people ratio disproportionate- hence you will be pulling some very long hours, doing the work of a team of 4 anywhere else on your shoulders
Lay offs can be brutal and sudden
Very limited time away from work- be on your blkbry always
Political sparring can get intense

Advice to Senior Management

reassess staffing requirements per function per team, promote more inter divisional cooperation, pare away the old boy mentality at the top

Pros

There is an amazing amount of talent at Goldman Sachs and the company does everything they can to create nice networking events. The benefits are outstanding

Cons

The work of an operations analyst at Goldman Sachs is extremely dry and very repetitive. They give you one task which you end up doing over and over. There isn't a lot there to pad your resume.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to continue to find and recruit the best talent you will need pay your employees a more competitive wage.

Pros

Smart People
Good Name on Resume
Opportunity to make a difference very early in career
Great starting compensation
Dynamic working environment

Cons

No work like balance
Culture of working more hours than necessary
Anyone can be laid off, even a top performer
Focus is constantly changing, can make it difficult to get a read on management priorities
Firm is under great regulatory scrutiny

Advice to Senior Management

Layoffs and hiring need to be more consistent and fair. If there is a chance of layoffs in the near future than don't hire.

In general, priorities need to be communicated from the top down so that people don't waste time on less important tasks.

People should be encouraged to work smarter and not just longer.

Pros

smart people, good benefits, good brand name

Cons

no work life balance, tough working environment for moms.

Pros

Great benefits (401k, gym, health center, daycare, etc)
Strong brand name - looks very good on your resume
Work culture and ethics
Very smart and interesting workforce
Great bonus (when the market has been good)

Cons

No work life balance
Layoffs - even if you're a top performer
Values face time
Backstabbing colleagues
No or little overtime, promotions not necessarily mean a raise

Advice to Senior Management

Talk the talk regarding how important are your employees and how valuable it is to have work life balance in the firm. This is not how you operate at the end of the day

Pros

Pays good for what you do, clean work enviornment, very safe job (if you can keep up your processing skills)

Cons

If they would call this place what it is, a data processing center, they would attract employees that are satisfied

Advice to Senior Management

Please be upfront with hires. So many come in with such high expectations. Good ones leave within a couple years.

Pros

Idea of prestige. Big bank.

Cons

Poor work life balance.poor promotion structure