Goldman Sachs Reviews

Pros

Organization with deep pockets
Competitive salary and benefits
Smart people
'Do good' initiatives benefit the disadvantaged, but are clearly self serving as well

Cons

Super political; need to always watch your back
Recent influx of 'outsiders' a huge contrast to dedicated long-term employees
Many 'managers' who only manage upward, not even sideways and certainly not downward
360 review process is a sham and political tool
Large established organization better at marketing itself than delivering what it promises

Advice to Senior Management

Reputation allure is enticing to those interested in mining 'gold' but GS is living off its past.

Pros

*Very knowledgeble, professional, respectful employess and management, very positive environment
*Ability to work from home when necessary and work-place flexibility - a must if you have a family
*Good pay, in line with the market rate for similar roles. However, the media reports about several hundred thousand of compensation per employess are bloated. The numbers are severely skewed by taking into account a few higher-paying executives.
* Tecnologies used are more up to date than in other large financial firms/investment banks (but I'm speaking about my dept only)
*Ability to propose/share your own ideas (to certain extent, since I was a consultant)
* The company *does* care about its reputation
* I didn't not have any full-time perks as I was a consultant and still, I was very, very happy with the job.
* In general, it was a very, very positive experience and I'd love to go back there either as a consultant or full-time if the company starts hiring back

Cons

One word: layoffs. There is good communication between management and employees about the possibility of upcoming layoffs, but this is still stressful for everyone, both employees and management. I guess it is stressfull for the company itself since they need to show the investors that they are cutting costs and cannot keep the good employees they would have otherwise have tried to keep.

Advice to Senior Management

Let consultants use the gym (since you have to pay for it anyway!). When you sit at work all day long, and commute while sitting, it's not a luxury to exercise, it's a MUST. There are no public gyms in the vicinity of the office. I have developed back pain at some point because I was sitting at work all day long. Also, the inability to use the gym made me feel like a second-class employee (I was a consultant, but my duties were not really different from anyone else on the team).

Pros

Colleagues are motivated, can be relied on to go the extra mile.
Smart people.
Gold standard office environment, benefits, available training and so forth.

Cons

It's large, you have to work to find the right team to work within.

Pros

The company has great benefits and a strong culture of unity and hard work. My position is highly analytical, but you might not get that as an operations employee. Your duties will depend completely on what teams are available when you start if you are in the operations division.

Cons

The culture and tasks of the individual team you are placed on in Salt Lake will determine more about your overall experience than anything else.

Advice to Senior Management

Match employees up with duties that align with their strengths rather than what might be open at the time. Promotions are merit based, but some activities go unnoticed.

Pros

Smart, driven people. Access to great resources and networking opportunities, being from one of the most successful financial firms. You feel like the company makes an impact.

Cons

Job insecurity -- multiple cutbacks and layoffs occurred as soon as quarterly performance took dip, including people who had been with the firm for a long time.

Pros

Always being encouraged to challenge yourself, and get things done better and quicker.
Great people to work with - intelligent, fun, always willing to give up their time to help and very down to earth (despite the external reputation for being arrogant).
Management work hard to keep employees up to date on company strategy.

Cons

Long working hours, so work-life balance isn't great. This can be especially hard as you get older and start having family commitments.
External perceptions of GS can be pretty negative.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to do more to enable women to combine having a family with having a career at GS.
Continue keeping employees informed of senior management decisions and company strategy.

Pros

- challenging environment
- good benefits in terms of health, bonus etc
- many opportunities for personal and professional growth
- good chances of changes in career internally
- driven, smart and competent colleagues

Cons

- lack of a 'life outside of work' during the week
- long hours
- undue pressure to constantly perform at 150% capacity
- sometimes can be seniority driven more than meritocracy

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to work on technological advancements to ensure manual intensive and redundant processes are cut down and try to reduce the work hours

Pros

One gets to work with very smart people on top of their game.

Cons

Work life balance can be an issue as the environment create a constant drive to over perform.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to create a better working environment that allows people to better balance their lives.

Pros

learned a lot in my division. lots of networking events. managers and other people offered lots of guidance.

Cons

documentation there is kinda of poor. many things can only be learned by having a meeting. so communication is important; they are not doing well now so none of us get a offer in TK tech...and we were not disclosed enough signs of it.

Advice to Senior Management

should be more transparent about future possible chances. after all, summer interns all want to get a offer not just for learning and doing projects

Pros

The culture of efficiency, hard work, and drive are incredible. It remains pretty professional at all times, though the brilliant people you work with make up for the all-work mentality

Cons

-Hard work/life balance: depending on your division, there's pressure to stay late, though it's often for good reason
-Getting fired is always a surprise to everyone--lack of transparency
-Runs lean, but sometimes TOO lean

Advice to Senior Management

This is a great place to work if you fit the corporate, type-A culture. There's room for career growth and experience.