Société Générale Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Société Générale

Pros – Good employee relations, good infrastructure, no major deadline issues, Some very good Application managers in place from Paris.

Cons – No growth for functional side of IT, Management myopic in a lot of things

Advice to Senior Management – Become more agile!

Current Employee – been working at Société Générale full-time

Pros – great benefits, people are really nice and helpful

Cons – too hierarchical, the organization of the bank is so messy that it affects the business efficiency

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Société Générale

Pros – People are very nice in the company. It's challenging but relaxing working atmosphere

Cons – Language. more than 80% people can speak French. If you don't speak French, you'll feel isolated somehow...

Former Employee – worked at Société Générale full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Fun culture, accessible senior management, eye for early talent.

Cons – Limited upward mobility for non French speakers (however SG is taking steps to change that).

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Société Générale full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Overall talent level quite low, so it is easier to advance

Cons – Very little concern for employees by management. Staff development is not considered HR or managers responsibility. There is a significant reorganization once per year, so the managers have to spend significant amounts of time on that rather than managing their teams. There is a large cultural gap between French and American employees in the NY office. Surprisingly, while this may seem obvious, the management and HR do nothing to address or manage the problem of culture and communication. I would agree with many other reviewers, if you do not speak French I would not recommend working here.

Advice to Senior Management – Settle on an organization and stick with it for at least a year before reorganizing again.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Société Générale full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Favorable work-life balance. Very well-regarded franchise in equity derivatives and other structured products.

Cons – Below market compensation for NYC. Very bureaucratic.

Not necessarily a pro or con, but the New York office is very French. Career advancement for those who don't come from the Grandes Ecoles / Societe Generale Paris office pipeline can be difficult.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Société Générale full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Friendly people and reasonable hours.

Cons – Lots of bureaucracy. When times are bad in France, the firm will sometimes replace American jobs with French ex-pats.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve the culture to be more efficient.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Société Générale as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Friendly People and nice location

Cons – No job security, frequent layoffs

Current Employee – been working at Société Générale full-time for more than a year

Pros – Most Americans are friendly- I've met some nice people

Cons – No career development help from HR or managers
Horrible systems
Disproportionate work distribution within same group (some people do nothing all day, while all the work is dumped on a few select/smarter employees)
French vs. American culture
Low work morale for Americans

Advice to Senior Management – Cut middle management
Better work distribution, trim the fat if you have to since this will raise salary/morale of the hard workers

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Société Générale full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great vacation policy, solid benefits.

Cons – Management is too busy playing politics and blaming others to participate in actual work.
Very few employees willing to help others - a culture that comes from the top down. Issues are always someone or some other team's problem.

Advice to Senior Management – Fire most of your middle management and hire (or promote) people that have positive attitudes and promote a positive work environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend