JPMorgan Chase Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

- Excellent mobility. The company is so large, and the dynamics are so great that if you do not get where you want to be, it is your own fault.
- Excellent networking opportunities. From personal experience, you can literally contact anyone in the company, and they will generally respond to you (90% roughly)
- Organized performance system. The system shows all your goals and your accomplishments to help you track your progress towards your career goal
- Extremely helpful employees. Even if your manager is not helpful, there will always be someone on your team that will help you out.
- Flexible hours. As a developer, I am able to adjust my schedule extremely well with my life.
- Team perks. Not all teams do this, but my team regularly held lunches and networking events for various occasions. (about once a month)

Cons

- Inconsistent skill levels. With a company this size, this is completely expected. However, changes to the recruitment process could definitely fix this up
- Terrible recruiting process. The analyst recruitment process is far too inconsistent and skewed in the technology area. Interviewers do not even ask or verify experience. As a result, you may end up working with mostly people less experienced in the field as you.
- Compensation is below the median. It is occasionally negotiable; you may ask to check.
- Benefits in general are slightly below par, and the company appears really "cheap" in some cases

Advice to Senior Management

Networking and referrals are great, but the skill level of the employees is the factor that drives the company the most in the end. Interviews should be more like other companies that run through required skill sets through an interview or assessment. While knowing how to speak and present yourself is important, back-office developers need a strong technical background to do their jobs efficiently.

Also, including little perks for lower level employees will likely keep up employee loyalty more.

Pros

Vacation is very fair, 4 weeks plus bank holidays plus personal and sick days.
Compensation is more than smaller companies but very little room to move up from where you start.

Cons

I had 8 different managers in a span of 2 years once. All of whom worked in a different city, and non of whom I ever met personally. Needless to say that when bonus and raise time came around I was a complete stranger to the manager I ended up under at the end of the year. This equates to the standard 1.5% raise and a 3% bonus no matter what you've done during the year.

Advice to Senior Management

There are more chiefs than indians, and more red tape to justify peoples jobs than neccessary. Constantly re-orging the business units does not increase efficiency it reduces it and makes employees feel as though you do not know how to manage them. The constant outsourcing of jobs makes current employees give less than their best effort because they spend half their time looking for another position before they axed themselves.

Pros

Big business, lots of opportunities to learn and affect changes. Occasionally, you can find some good people to work with.

Cons

Tough to build a career in analysis. Very slow change process. No proper and transparent employee evaluation, promotion and career development plan. There are many managers - not enough leaders.
Internal pay raises are woefully mediocre compared to what is given to people coming in from outside - hence the "Good for a Few" (years).

Pros

good benefits, laid back managers

Cons

lower salary, less bonus, politics, favouritism, promotions are based on relatonships not merit

Advice to Senior Management

be more fair

Pros

It was friendly good environment to work in. People were very helpful. Internship was a good experience at JP Morgan Chase.

Cons

There might be times when no work was given when asked so basically very much down time. Sometimes help was not there when needed.

Advice to Senior Management

I would recommend to train the managers more than they are right now since when a question was raised they did not have any answers.

Pros

Wonderful learning experience. Great opportunity to lead and take up responsibility.

Cons

Senior Management dont see eye to eye and absolutely no leadership from the CRO.

Advice to Senior Management

Please get rid of the old timers in senior management and get so,e fresh perspective. The "good old boys club" needs to be disbanded. Give more value to employees..

Pros

Certain benefits are great by comparison. 4 weeks paid vacation, 2 personal days and 6 sick days are standard for salaried employees. The company also provides a small pension in addition to 401k matching. Performance bonuses are just that...based on performance. Onsite backup daycare is provided at no cost for 10 days a year, which is a great fallback for emergencies. Maternity leave is paid for 12 weeks.

Mobility within the organization is encouraged. The employee is expected to be in charge of his/her own career path, and (most) managers embrace assisting employees get where they want to go. There is a wealth of career development training, networking and mentoring available. (Although finding the hours is sometimes a challenge!)

The environment is casual, people are generally happy and friendly.

The company name is great on a resume.

Cons

This feedback is specific to Information Technology areas. The company is huge and there is a TON of bureaucracy, so if you want to be on the cutting edge of fast moving change, this is not the place for you.

Pay is average. Once you are in the door, it is difficult to get a substantial increase. Internal moves to other roles do not translate to pay increases, even if then new role has more responsibility.

Health Insurance is below average. The company offers only two plans to US-based employees, and both have very high deductibles before they pay for anything other than a primary care vist. ($3000 or $5000 for family plans.) The deductibles are offset by a company-provided medical reimbursement account; which can be anywhere from about $500-$1200. The insurance benefits are probably fine as long as you aren't prone to sports injuries or have young children.

Although the company touts flexible work options, they are not widely supported by management. JP Morgan Chase lags behind its competitors in embracing telecommuting as a way to keep employees happy and productive.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to remain competitive, get with the times as far as flexible work arrangements. We live in the age of technology and are a global company, so recognize that employees can be productive from home computers.

Pros

Simply put it is the best bank on the street. A large network of professionals that are dedicated to being the best as well. A lot of room for growth and easy transition to other parts of the bank.

Cons

Sometimes it is too big. The senior management live in bubble and at times don't really listen to the junior people. In addition, some of the promotions are not merit based.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your junior people. They are the future of the company that you hold so dear (and own stock in).

Pros

There is a push for work life balance.

Cons

The pay between starting employees and more Sr employees is to close

Pros

* total compensation is better than average
* good benefit
* pension and 401K
* flexibility
* enough vacation days, personal days and sick days
* training budget for employee
* good career experience

Cons

* wage tax 1.5% working in Wilmington DE
* so many talent people, harder to get promotion in the same group
* pension and 401K match start after a complete year of service