Goldman Sachs Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

Goldman has great employee benefits and resources made available for its workers.

Cons

Career growth is slow and lots of politics. Terrible work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employee feedback.

Pros

- best & brightest + very nice people
- SecDB, major competitive advantge, no other firm has this (altho they tried)
- exceptional quant talents (way smarter than traders)

Cons

- political on top (esp. the business side)
- like all banks, constant hustling
- some useless work just to get exposure or satisfy short term needs

Advice to Senior Management

- better performance review procedure: it's called 360 degree but in reality still one sided from manager
- make it a true meritocracy and reduce politics

Pros

People at the firm are great.

Cons

Politics needed to play are tough.

Advice to Senior Management

NA

Pros

Very smart people with good business sense; good benefits package including online courses, maternity leave program; work itself is interesting and variable which keeps your interest

Cons

Extremely competitive environment, management can be aggressive and also play favorites, extremely long hours required when compensation is static. The way feedback is given is not very professional in some cases.

Advice to Senior Management

Constructive criticism is good, but aggressive leadership is unnecessary and does not motivate employees or ensure they work to the best of their ability.

Pros

Compensation/good brand name outside work place.

Cons

Very MBAish organisaton... very much internal networking based.

Advice to Senior Management

To recognize talent in a better way and not have stereo typed bosses.

Pros

money. lots of work to do,

Cons

you can fall into the wrong place after mgmt change occurs and you have no way out; except to get layoff after degrading performance review. upper management is not interested in correcting such inadequacies and improper usage of perf review system.

Pros

Smart Co-workers and management
Top technology support

Cons

long hours
bonus good, but not given the amount of hours logged

Advice to Senior Management

Open up the bonus pool a bit more to everyone

Pros

-Culture: the people are driven, brilliant and good at what they do
-Pay: comparable to other jobs on the Street
-Reputation: can't ask for a better place to start one's career

Cons

-While the work is challenging and exciting, it can get a bit too intense sometimes and people tend to stress a lot over their assignments.
-The work-life balance is not as good as it is other places, but expected if you work on the Street.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide employees with more ways to improve upon their work-life balance and relax a little more at work.

Pros

Top in what it does.

Cons

Has somewhat very long hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Not Applicable.

Pros

The camaraderie you make with all other employers at the firm is amazing.

Cons

The competitiveness is overwhelming sometimes, but it should give you more determination to be better.