Scotiabank Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

potential for career advancement and growth

Cons

call center environment so it can become boring

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work

Pros

* work-life balance
* no added stress

Cons

* low compensation
* tight departmental budget

Advice to Senior Management

* offer competitive salary

Pros

Provide great traning, good relationship with teamate and manager, lot of branches, everybody helps each other. most international bank in Canada

Cons

Policy keep changing every day, mortgage rate is not Competitive, working attitude is a very big problem, underwriting system very low efficiency?

Advice to Senior Management

Hopefully the people whoes working in the ACMUC can improve the working attitude.
Hire someone whose really understand the banking and marketing to make the mortgage products.

Pros

good bank and good place to start

Cons

big institution but less accomodating

Advice to Senior Management

none
cant think at this point

Pros

Job stability - Only bank that didn't lay off employees during recent downturn. The organization does have alot of long term and very committed employees.

Cons

Not a dynamic organization. If your bright and show initiative you will not fit in here. All decisions are made at the very top levels and the other 99% of employees are expected to be mediocre, yes men. The organization is very hierarchical and clique. Only the "chosen" few get career opportunities, and merit seems to actually work against you when it comes to career opportunities. The "chosen" seem to regularly move to areas of the business that they have zero knowledge, which can be very frustrating for people working under the "chosen". Company is embarrassingly cheap. Has the shabbiest, most dated decor and salaries are much lower than any of the other major banks.

Pros

Scotia IT job is good if you're looking for the following:
-A place for a work/life balance.
-Not much OT required like some other banks. It pays for any OT you did or you can get lieu days.
-Stable job with decent benefits
-Very good for new graduate especially from intern program. Promotion is pretty quick in certain area comparing to established IT working professionals.

Cons

-No focus on innovation and motivation.
-Very lengthy communication channel for a small thing/Very inefficient in cross department communication
-Project is moving very slowly in certain IT department.
-IT Managers are more like resource managers - they don't understand technology

Advice to Senior Management

- Focus on bringing innovation and creativity to the product rather than just focus on meetings.
- Listen to the suggestions from people with experience from outside rather than sticking to the old ways
-Spend some time to provide career coaching or opportunity to the employees who are willing to grow.

Pros

Free bank accounts (max. 5), stock options, health coverage, paid vacation even for part-time employees. Scotia Applause Program provides a point structure for purchasing items as rewards.

Cons

Does not have a clear advancement path in place for individuals in the customer service role. Individuals are encouraged to stay where they are rather than advance by their immediate management. This goes against the HR department's stated goal.

Advice to Senior Management

Use your branches more effectively as a source for talent in other departments. You have very experienced individuals with high levels of education who are looking to advance at Scotiabank. Their direct managers don't show enough interest in their development. This is a wasted resource.

Pros

Opportunity to train and observe the financial field, also great social culture

Cons

Pay not very competitive in industry

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be too ambitious with the company targets without increasing the compensation to employees in an equal manner. This could frustrate the staff because the targets keep growing while the compensation remains the same. More work for the same pay. Keep up the social activities; great way to network within the organization.

Pros

- Very concrete project management process
- Established management chain
- Well established performance review process, tied to bonus payout
- Lots of opportunity for advancement, promotion
- Great people!

Cons

- Old outdated tech used in some projects
- Compensation can be low compared to non-banking sector
- Red tape on getting new ideas approved can be hard to cut

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work, higher salaries would be nice! All in all, you've got a great place to work!

Pros

-Work life balance
-Compensation for interns are very good
-Assigned to projects that will go into production

Cons

-downtime due to testing can make some days very boring