Nuveen Reviews

Pros

Good place to start your career as it's a great place to learn the industry.

Cons

Pay isn't up to par with the peers.

Pros

Free Lunch. Friendly and cordial working environment.

Cons

The traffic around the city is horrendous. Limited opportunity in promotions. It's not uncommon to know someone working in the same position for years.

Pros

A very comfortable place to work and stay at. There are basically two levels at Nuveen, graduate degrees/CFA's (front office / management) and undergraduates (back office and some sales). This is pretty typical and obvious for those who want to work hard and make a great living; the opportunities are available there. I would recommend Nuveen to any person pursuing a career in investments.

Cons

If you are motivated and push yourself to obtain investment license's and your graduate degree the sky is the limit. Otherwise you'll wither away in your cube. Push yourself, this company is a winner if they ever break free from MDP.

Pros

Chicago nice place to work

Cons

Passive Aggressive behavior gets old after a while

Pros

- Downtown Chicago location (if you are part of the mother-ship).
- Near the food court at the Merchandise Mart.
- Free coffee.
- Nice place before it was taken private.

Cons

- No one-on-one communication from management.
- Endless meetings arguing over minutia.
- Days filled with busy work, not productive work.

Advice to Senior Management

- Take the company public again to open Nuveen back up to the light of day.

Pros

generous vacation; overall very good benefits

Cons

not a very inclusive environment

Advice to Senior Management

be in touch with employees

Pros

Downtown with great technology and products and services to offer advisors. Promotional opportunies are open to qualifying applicants with opportunites for advancement.

Cons

The sales staff is more career orientated on the internal desk and content in their current roll. This does not spur the competitive drive on the desk.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to be transparent in what is going on for the direction of the company. Change in leaderhsip should be met with openness.

Pros

The great people around the firm
Good benefits - many of which have been cut however

Cons

Madison Dearborn took Nuveen private at the top of the market - as a result, the firm is under extreme pressure to generate revenues and/or cut costs. There are many entrepreneurial people in the firm, unfortunately, executive management is detached from the people who are expected to deliver and doesn't do a good job of monitoring or holding to account those who are responsible for the undertaking. In a business with extremely large gross margins, this type of detachment isn't terminal nor does it result in major pain for shareholders, however, in the new asset management business paradigm it has become a problem for Nuveen and firms like it.

Advice to Senior Management

Run Nuveen like a business, not a country club for execs.

Pros

The eight-week sabbatical is great -- if you can make it that long. Good vacation time, decent base salaries and pretty good benefits -- but not as good as they used to be (no longer have a defined benefit plan). Equity used to be great to have, but since the buyout, just not the upside potential anymore for the rest of the folks.

Cons

Top management plays by different rules. If you can come in at a high enough level, you'll love it. Otherwise the incentive comp is lacking for everyone else. Poor communication of strategic direction. Little incentive given to the sales people.

Advice to Senior Management

Empathize with the rest of the employees a little -- spread the wealth. Senior management is the only group that gets to keep pace with the real inflation.

Pros

Still some remnants of the work-life balance remain from "old Nuveen" but gradually eroding.

Cons

Weak leadership, poor communication, financial impact of acquisition.

Advice to Senior Management

Follow-through on long-term plan and provide more active leadership and direction.