JPMorgan Chase Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Great benefits, including 4 weeks of vacation
Mostly friendly co-workers
Convenient location for commuting via Metra or CTA
Discounts on banking services

Cons

Micromanagement is prevalent in the dept.
Advancement is difficult in the Marketing group
Immediate manager refuses to share information
Upper management does not "walk the talk"

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your ego in check. Be aware of how you come across to your underlings. Most managers tend to manage up instead of caring about those below them. It's a cut-throat business these days, and it's a shame that this dept. is a textbook case in how NOT to manage.

Pros

in general, the people are easy going and enjoyable to work with

Cons

bad hours with limited exposure to senior management

Pros

-The Name
-Benefits
-I met some great people through complaining about the position

Cons

-Extremely micro-managed in every aspect (managers are like hawks)
-Lines and scripts make you feel less and less human every day
-You are required to grab people before they make it to the teller line
-You have an ugly uniform
-Management is fueled by sales numbers and they make you feel as if you are a number
-You have no voice when it comes to your opinions. You on the the bottom of the totem pole. Management will hear your ideas/struggles but they do not listen, understand, or take action.
-You have to be drinking "the kool-aid" to be sort of successful. You have to drink what they serve you and put a happy face on at all times.

Overall, if you are considering this position, only take it if you can work like a robot (without a brain.) You have to leave your personality and emotions at the door because no one likes them in the branch. By the end of my time there, I felt like I had lost myself because I was no longer using my brain; it felt like the movie Groundhog Day. Same people, same scenarios, same lines, and same clothes every single day.

I am a recent college grad, and this was my first "real" job outside of school. If there is anybody else in this position, do not get sucked into this role. You do not apply or use anything you had worked for in college. Pursue other jobs and goals.

P.S. If a banker approaches you in the lobby of the bank, do not sit down with him/her! They will try to sell you ridiculous things. Only sit down with them if you have a question or inquiry.

Advice to Senior Management

-Understand that building relationships is important. Not seeing as many people as possible.
-Your employees feel miserable. Talk to them!

Pros

Large company with potential for growth

Cons

Seemed hard to swtich from one area to another

Pros

Name recognition, great products, Employees work hard

Cons

Long Hours, Low Pay, cookie cutter mentality

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees some latitude and time off.

Pros

The people in our dept had all worked together for years and mostly we considered each other friends.

The pay was good and the vacation (4 weeks + sick time!) was excellent (not sure if this is true any more).

Some opportunity to learn new technology.

Decent internal communication about industry events, internal policy, but not really supported by *my* line management.

Cons

Continuing pressure to do more with less at some point leads to completely unrealistic situations.

World-wide organization with 100,000+ employees just too big.

Death-march projects. Everyone I knew (near the end, before our dept was moved to another state), had the *opportunity* to work 80 hr weeks for months on end, including a few 24 hr days on the weekends. Is that management?

Advice to Senior Management

Think about this, you continue to wring salary, benefits, work-life balance, education from employees. Then you move jobs off-shore. What is the logical outcome of this path? Using Chinese prisoners to do your work? Then how do you get a cost savings after that?

Pros

-Not a hard job by any means as far as day to day activitites
-Ok base salary
Lare Company so potential to be promoted or transfer

Cons

-Political-Who you know and not so much how you perform
-High pressure and yet incentive plan horrible
-Managment unrealistic and micro management is the philosophy
-They claim position is one of professionalism yet treated otherwise

Pros

-Great benefits, company covers almost everything
-regular 40 hour week
-multiple locations, able to find local positions
-ability to transfer to other cities
-pay decent but not great
-had good training, now it's optional after you complete one year (they didn't want to pay for everyone to get licensed with the high turnover)

Cons

There are many downsides that I didn't realize until I was there for a year or so. Chase execs basically say one thing and your manager/district manager say another. You should "do what's right for the customer" they say on every weekly call. Then an hour later you are opening checking accounts and/or credit cards that customers don't need to inflate your numbers. Since the branch P&L is based off of these (and other services such as direct deposit, online billpay, etc) the manager urges you to be shady if possible to hit the branch's numbers mainly because their district manager is pushing them to do the same. And if you don't achieve your personal numbers...forget about promotions.
Basically those who are promoted at the branch and district level are those who were best at inflating their numbers by being a great salesman i.e. using shady tactics and lying to make a sale. When the average banker opens 10 approved credit cards per month and the leader in the district opens around 85-90, wouldn't you think a red flag would be raised somewhere? Nope, everyone looks the other way and then they're promoted.
Trust me, ever been into a Chase branch and wondered "why do these bankers want to pay my bills online for me (a free service) so bad?" The answer is they get commission and it helps the branch's numbers. When an 86 year old woman who has never used a computer suddenly pays her light and gas bill online one time (the qualifier to get commission is two bills over $25 paid) and never again, wouldn't that banker come under scrutiny for "inflating" his numbers? Nope, he's promoted.
And recently they've been hiring a lot of unintelligent people. The training is no longer mandatory. It used to be that the Series 6, 66 and life insurance exams to be licensed were required and concurrently weeded out the bimbos and mimbos. But now they are optional for the banker to take after a year of service so many are highered strictly for looks and/or ability to form words into a sentence.

Advice to Senior Management

Have some recruiters actually meet the talented employees that you spent money to train and have been with the company for a few years! When applying for other jobs within the company it's a joke; my resume looks similar to the guy next to me who doesn't know what prime rate is or how a mortgage works. You're losing talented employees because they've reached their potential in current position and have nowhere to go.

Pros

Not too hard with sales experience
Extensive training

Cons

Unrealistic goals from managemet
Becomes quite tedious

Pros

The Pay and the people you meet!

Cons

You are treated like a piece of meat.

Advice to Senior Management

More detail from person to person