UBS Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

company culture/dynamic working environment and smartest people to work with

Cons

compensation is relatively low compared with other big banks

Pros

Name recognition... used to have a good reputation. Strong international presence.

Cons

Poor career advancement opportunities, idiotic management.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees are often taken for granted.

Pros

Truly global multi-cultural environment with great opportunities to work on cutting edge technologies. A lot of smart people (although that number has been dwindling of recent). Good compensation package and "large firm" job stability.

Cons

Risk-averse CYA culture that permeates from the senior management to the rank-and-files. Constant consensus seeking and group-think. Lack of decision making authority and empowerment an all levels. Politics and making yourself look good rule the day, while many projects run for years with nothing getting done. Majority of truly talented innovative people either have left or are looking to leave.

Advice to Senior Management

Transform the company and its culture to focus on achievements & results and not the "presentation". As long as the current culture remains, the company will always be an "also run" in the Wall Street.

Pros

Some of the best reasons to work for UBS are the global workforce exposure, advanced technology and the benefits. UBS has some of the best people I worked with in my 13 year career in technology.

Cons

UBS ihas a high stress and unforgiving culture. There is a alot of consensus seeking and group think for intiatives which creates a CYA culture and causes projects/change to slow down drastically.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to foster an environment that fosters calculated risk taking and not blame drop the hammer on individuals that show good initiative, but bad judgement.

Pros

Very smart people, worldwide reach. Tremendous amount of opportunity throughout the globe. Hard to compare current compensation practices given the bonus meltdown happening throughout the industry. Employees, particularly those with ambition, are generally well respected. Huge upside on current stock price - doesn't help those with underwater stock otions though.

Cons

Trouble focusing on mission - can't decide if it is a high end wealth manager or a retail shop. Difficulty communicating overall big picture to field. Morale is very low at the field level, although it tends to improve as you move up the pay scale (the slashed bonuses will have an impact there).

Advice to Senior Management

Choose a direction and execute

Pros

International experience and exposure. Reasonably good access to information throughout the bank. Lots of very smart people.

Cons

Really screwed-up the credit trading. Chicago was terribly treated, compared to other locations.

Advice to Senior Management

Open your eyes.

Pros

Open culture, growth opportunities - especially outside of the US

Cons

Work life balance can take a hit, investment banks in general have been very badly hit in 2008 and not as attractive as previous years

Advice to Senior Management

continue with the openess demonstrated during the subprime crisis

Pros

At UBS, it's easy to be a star, because everybody around you lacks any motivation or discernible talent. You'll frequently travel to fun places like London, Zurich and Tokyo for no apparent reason. If you're fortunate enough work on a project that isn't axed due to lack of interest or boredom on the part of management, you'll have unlimited time lines to complete even the simplest of tasks, since nobody will ever pressure you to work as that may ruin your friendship and personal relationships are far more important than the success of the business.

Cons

Management is totally incompetent. Compensation is very weak. Technology is a joke (even though they think they're cutting edge). Nobody cares if you make any sort of progress (education, career, otherwise). Officers (such as the COO) verbally assault entire departments and publicly make lewd jokes about individuals they don't care for. Your liberties will be infringed upon (you'll work any hours they want you to, takes calls during sick & vacation time, and rid yourself of any personal websites or blogs, it's against their policy).

Advice to Senior Management

Fire each other.

Pros

Good benefits. Offices are nice. Company cafeteria.

Cons

Horrible management. Cronyism and nepotism are more important than competence. Morale is low because most people know you are judged more on sucking up to management than on job performance. Managers are teflon coated and can blame all problems on subordinates and senior management doesn't care enough to investigate causes of poor performance. Serious ethics problems throughout the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

When something goes wrong speak with all people involved no matter what their level. Don't let managers appease you by placing blame on subordinates and firing them, get involved and find out if the employees being fired are to blame, or if managers are just covering up their own incompetence. Understand the business and the people involved. Don't let managers hire their buddies, make sure all hires are properly interviewed. Make managers responsible for performance of their groups. Insist upon ethical business practices and professional behavior.

Pros

good work/life balance, IT positions are pretty much 9 - 5 in the Chicago office. good time off/vacation policy. technology seems to be fairly up to date.

Cons

lack of growth opportunity and slow salary increase (I've heard that some employees do not receive a raise for 3 straight years!). the work is pretty mudane in the Chicago office. for better career advancement and more challenging work, have to relocate to Stamford office.

Advice to Senior Management

need to streamline business units, there are multiple IT teams doing similar types of work. need to close mid and back office IT development work in the Chicago office. IT groups seems to be low pay and slow producers compared to what I'm used to.