ING Direct Reviews

Pros

Culture is strong and passionate

Cons

Culture runs chance of disappearing with upcoming purchase

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the faith and stay the course

Pros

I find the workplace to be mostly positive and the focus on the Orange Code is something that is taken fairly seriously, not just given lip service. The people are on the younger side of things and are mostly willing to be flexible, making changes as needed as opposed to digging in on decisions that aren't working. The benefits, esp. medical and dental, are really great. The bank is only 10 years old, so we do things very differently than other banks, which means that a lot of the baggage I dealt with at other banks isn't here at all.

Cons

The pay is terrible. The benefits are pretty good but the take home pay is embarrassing, compared to other banks. There is a lot of lip service about communication as to what's happening with the bank. We are set to be sold to another bank and the lack of data given to associates is quite frankly disturbing. Part of what drew me to the bank was the position of the CEO that we don't do 15 and 30 year mortgages, as well as credit cards. But all of those things seem to be on the agenda for 2012. I feel lilke a part of ING Direct's soul is being worn away and the result isn't good.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your people more. You'd have less people defecting to other banks if you paid people what they are actually worth.

Pros

Nice starting salary and good benefits

Cons

Los Angeles has no real advancement opportunities, they are all in MN or DE. Only one person was promoted to a different department while i was there for 9 months. If you are not good in sales you are stuck and they will eventually fire you (even if you are proficient in every other area and won several competitions there!).

Advice to Senior Management

Don't have people stuck in sales there whole career there. There were plenty of people with degrees who could have seen success in other areas given the chance.

Pros

Cultural is very flat, easy to approach managers/executives
Generous vacation time, but comparable to other companies in financial services
On-site fitness centers/doctors in most locations

Cons

Base salary is 30-40% below market.
There is a significant amount of dead weight which needs to be trimmed in middle management, especially in Home Loans.
No work from home policy
Very little career development depending on the Manager you have
Some departments are very "meeting centric"

Advice to Senior Management

Get out and see what the people in your department are doing. Showing you care about your employees can make up for some of the Cons. Arkadi has been mostly MIA in the last 6 months.

Pros

_Salary
- Collegues
- Career opportunity
- Potential

Cons

_ Reorganisations and the lack of seeing potential in empleyees

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in people quality;s

Pros

They have nice events and parties

Cons

Dead end job, the pay is the worst out of any financial institution

Pros

Great Culture and providing a cause for being there.

Cons

Trying to remain the challenger to an industry that is highly regulated

Pros

Great people to work with

Cons

Salaries could be stronger. Many of my co-workers have second jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work.

Pros

Good place to learn banking procedures.

Cons

Compensation for fresh graduate hires is less.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a rotation policy so that everyone gets hands-on in different environments.

Pros

Great culture
Great people
Mentor system
Valuable experience
Customer-friendly

Cons

Low-cost bank... you do the math
Wilmington, DE