SVB Financial Reviews

Pros

Great culture and people. We work hard and play hard.

Cons

The Boston office is not too large so there are limited opportunities as you move up in your career.

Pros

the company supports healthy work life balance overall, caveat being that it really depends on your manager. most managers work out fine as the company does make an honest effort to ensure people would fit culturally prior to hiring.

the people make up the culture and are by in large the biggest pro.

Cons

-i joined when the company was much smaller and the feeling of becoming a larger institution is definitely there. that said, in a perfect world this would create more opportunities. catch up here is clearly in order.

Advice to Senior Management

keep your ear to the ground. focus on career advancement and creating opportunities. stay transparent with information. invest more into products and get ahead of the competition.

Pros

Good Pay, Good Benefits. Very good Business Leadership Team. Niche market. Credit Team is very good and dedicated.

Cons

Online banking Product Group is not very competent, and Arrogant. Very small and unproductive IT Team. Wasting lots of money by having many cross functional teams.

Advice to Senior Management

Review effectiveness and leanness of Online Banking Product Team and Information Technology Team. There is lots of room for improvement and cost cutting. May be worthwhile thinking of adopting Cloud Computing model ( IAAS, and SAAS) for IT and Product group.

Pros

-good compensation
-some good people to work with

Cons

-promote incompetent people
-some bad people to work with
-favoritism
-no work life balance

Advice to Senior Management

Stop promoting people who management like even though they are incompetent.

Pros

Technology industry
Good benefits
Friendly people (for the most part)
Flexible when need to be flexible
Promote fast if you work for it

Cons

Getting to be a "big bank"
Suprising personnel decisions (picking wrong people to promote and getting rid of or driving out good, producing workers)

Advice to Senior Management

Do not manage by fear and insecuirty. If you hire talented people, they will work hard and it will payoff for the company.

Pros

Great salary and benefits. Widely recognized in the SF Bay area in the venture and small business community. The name will open a lot of doors and its banking clients seem very satisfied. The company has the ability to attract some of the nicest and most talented people around. I made many long-term friendships there.

Cons

1. High level politics. Senior management is more interested in their own aspirations than managing their team or understanding the business.
2. Very much an old boys network. If you're not pals with the lead decision-maker, then you'll be passed over for promotions and kudos. Management is more interested in talking about big ideas than implementing them.
3. The infrastructure of the company is circa 1995. The computers are slow and clunky, as are most of the IT applications needed to do the job. Check out the company's website for an example.
4. Strong silo culture, from the steering committee downward.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a one-firm culture to help alleviate the politics across divisions and teams. Upgrade your IT systems so that your talented staff can do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. It's ironic that the company backs some of the brightest innovators in the country, yet doesn't adopt innovative technologies itself.

Pros

Good compensation, company is in a growth mode, innovative business. Very good benefits, including home loans for execs. Good bonus payouts in years the company is doing well.

Good Board of Directors - smart savvy people who are interested in the Company...

Cons

Long hours, bad culture, passive-aggressive people. Thinking outside the box is not encouraged at all - Senior Management not very coordinated. Their talk is different from their walk - especially the CEO, Ken Wilcox.

The IT sucks - no access to latest technologies like access to Messager, internet email etc.. ..

There is a lot of favouritism and fiefdoms's exist in almost all departments.

Only reason for working here is that the COmpany is doing well even in a bad environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the culture. Foster more open, clear, honest and fast communication to employees.

Pros

Good Benefits, good team work as well

Cons

Poor management, lack of technical understanding

Advice to Senior Management

Try to have good work life balance. Weed out people who are not contributing. Its not fair when 20% of the people are doing 805 of the work

Pros

They have a very nice benefits for their employees

Cons

Management doesn't treat people with decency. They just mask the truth making their employees believe in their honesty.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest with your employees and stop using dirty technics when you want to let people go.