Visa Inc Reviews

Pros

The internship for me was wonderful because my supervisor really cared about my development.

Cons

I've heard complaints regarding other departments. Organization and communication between departments need work.

Advice to Senior Management

Collaborate and learn from other departments in addition to simply managing your own department.

Pros

Salary ,Talented people, 401K,Brand, worldwide presence

Cons

Clueless Management
Bureaucratic agency
Politics
long work hours

Advice to Senior Management

Management just looks forward and just believes in pushing they people. They never see back to see lessons learnt from past decision. Every time they sing the song of "this time it will work".
Everybody is waiting for the jackpot, and that’s why every 6 months there is a reorg. Even if you join visa as a curious, enthusiastic person, in 1 year you will be totally institutionalized by VISA. Always find a process to stop the work from happening. Most of the people use process like armor.

Wakeup management...Even after a disastrous employee survey, you guys are still sleeping...Board members, are you going to wait for another 2 years to see how many employees left?

Pros

Great brand
Fantastic people to work with
Rewarding and challenging work

Cons

No work life balance,working from home simply not allowed
No career development or training
Poor management and leadership skills
Very under resourced
No rewards or recognition program
Poor HR department

Advice to Senior Management

Managers need to concentrate on developing team potential,which creates talented and motivated people
Clear development program and career progression
Acknowledge staff have lives outside and give flexibility to work life balance
Rotate managers out of roles every 2/3 years,otherwise you create stagnant selfish leaders
Acknowledge the hard work employees do and recognise and reward accordingly

Pros

Good Pay
Good work life balance
Interesting work depending on your team and group
Great benefits for all employees and family

Cons

Management is stuck in the past
Lots of people punching the clock without expectation of producing results for their work
Highly political

Advice to Senior Management

Upper management works away from the brunt of the company and there is no clear line of communication to senior management. Come down and spend time with your company to understand what is really going on.

Pros

- pay is generally higher than comparable roles in the valley
- benefits (401k 2-1 match, pension plan after 3 years) are great

Cons

Where to even start?

- It is hard to think of another company that is more DYSFUNCTIONAL, POLITICAL and MEDIOCRE than Visa. Bring your career here and you will REGRET it, and that is almost guaranteed. Don't believe me? TAKE A LOOK AT OTHER REVIEWS here, they all pretty much have the same grievances...

- Middle management almost takes pride in how POLITICAL the company is. They sit in meetings all day but the heavy lifting is hardly ever done. Ask for any kind of documentation or background information for your projects and they will proudly tell you everything lives in people's heads. Good luck getting it out!

- WEAK LEADERSHIP all the way up to the top with a C-suite that is ANTIQUATED and out of touch and global heads that are completely removed from the realities of what goes on at the ground level. Not surprising from a company that has the HQ in SF (for top management only) while the actual farm is 30 miles south.

- Over-filled with DINOSAURS that have been with the company for 10-20 years, have advanced to roles they are neither qualified for nor have the discipline, intelligence or skill to execute or manage others in their groups. FAVORITISM to the max, hardly a mertiocracy. People seem to grow based on how well they play the POLITICAL GAME rather than true hard work.

- UNPROFESSIONAL middle management that would make a hooker blush with the amount of profanity, lack of diplomacy and tact that can be observed in daily meetings and around the cubes.

- SINK OR SWIM environment - you will get no onboarding, no help and no development for your job. Pray that it fits exactly with what you bring to the table or you're screwed!

- A company that woke up one day and decided they are becoming a nimble tech startup. Wrong! They are stuck in the days of an overly STUFFY CULTURE with arcane, BUREAUCRATIC procedures, SLOW moving and a general LACK OF EMPOWERMENT for decision making, etc. A $1 mm investment should not require the CFOs signoff for a company that makes billions every year!

- Generally a very DEPRESSING, dark and sad place to work. It is obvious that many PEOPLE HATE THEIR JOBS (some are even vocal about it) and only stay for either lack of options or because of the pay. The elevated frustration creates an environment where people are RUDE, unhelpful, and backstabbing.

- To make things worse, the Washington of the corporate world has acquired 2 other businesses that is trying to integrate with little true strategy or success. The only success so far: more politics!

- The payment processing industry is extremely mundane, DULL and needlessly complex. Those that know it will always throw their weight around by overcomplicating the technical aspect in order to maintain control while those that don't act like they do making things even more confusing.

- For a company that moves as SLOW as Visa, and where so little true progress is made, WORK-LIFE BALANCE IS TERRIBLE! This is a direct result of lack of prioritization from the top down, the politics and bureaucracy. Absolutely NO TASK here is done in an EFFICIENT, straight-forward way.

- Although the Visa network is mainly in autopilot mode everyone is constantly agitated and stressed out trying to justify their existence and paycheck. Everything to the smallest, most ridiculous task is a priority and gets excessive attention until the next thing comes up. The biggest joke on campus is "if everyone at Visa took the month off, nothing would change". There is much truth to that joke...

Advice to Senior Management

- Get rid of the executive management and clean house of all the useless middle managers.
- Empower people to do their jobs
- Invest in the people and the culture - it is really struggling!!!
- Decide on a strategy and go with it! The payment industry is changing rapidly, it will not wait for you to get it together.
- Reduce the disconnect between management and the workforce. Neither has an idea what the others are doing.

Pros

The individuals are for the most part bright and friendly. The compensation's OK, and it is a large enough company that the entire future of the firm isn't riding on your shoulders alone.

Cons

Inept management. Cronyism galore. If you are in the management track, assume that your peers and higher ups are ready to stab you if it advances their careers. Feudalism seems to have become the norm.

Advice to Senior Management

Take your IPO stock and get the hell out so someone with youth and drive can make it worth something.

Pros

Great retirement / 401(k) benefits
Strong brand name that will get more recognition in the marketplace than it probably deserves
There are some really nice, professional, and good people sprinkled throughout the company
The company does well due to developments in the marketplace and the fact that it's basically a duopoly with MasterCard.

Cons

Incompetent managers (make that incompetent to extremely incompetent)
The place runs on automatic pilot and lots of people try to take credit for other people's work
Being promoted or having a path means transferring out of your group if you can even do that
Not all employees get stock options and/or RSUs (fat pigs at the top and senior level do, however). If stock options are given, they're a piddly amount.
Current CEO literally "laughs" when employees complain about not getting options or RSUs

Advice to Senior Management

You're dinosaurs. Give credit where credit is due. Lots of good people have left the company. Many more will continue to do so.

Pros

Great global brand
Lots of smart, talented people
Competitive benefits, especially for the people that have been at the company a long time
Strong desire to compete in payments space

Cons

Very poor management of existing talent - seems easier to hire top pedigree from outside
Communication from executive management is poor and cryptic
Poor job market has kept a lot of good people idle. Starting to see the steady stream of exits of the people Visa really needs to retain

Advice to Senior Management

A great global brand would be much stronger with a highly motivated base of employees. Executive management is disconnected from the real workers by their "handlers". Wake up and smell the competition passing you by. Extra fat compensation packages will make their eventual transition out comfortable so no need to mix things up now...

Pros

Pay and equity are decent

Cons

Politics - ceiling between upper management and the worker bees
Big company, slow to move or innovate

Pros

Salary
401k
Benefits
depending on the team, good people.

Cons

Politics
Employees are much less important then cash
Culture over the years have gone from teamwork to politics and decisions taken without listening to SMEs and team.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the old exec management team and replace with younger more innovative and forward looking. Less cash and stock value interest, more grow the business and introduce cool products.