Pros
1) Smart, collaborative coworkers in some areas 2) Interesting work and good learning opportunities in some areas 3) Possible to have really good people managers 4) 4.5% match with 401k 5) Bonus structure particular at Director and above level 6) Stock purchase plan, 15% of each $1 from company 7) Nice and modern facilities and variety of food options in cafeterias in main Richmond and McLean locations 8) Improvement and innovation focused 9) Fast promo track if you are diligent, in the right role, influential, with a strong manager advocate. 10) amazing severance packages which have been abused by quiet quitters. 11) unlimited sick days, 4.5 months maternity leave, 8 weeks paternity leave
Cons
1) performance mgt process is exhausting and gets in the way of getting work done; talent mgt in Q1, PM cycle in Q2, talent mgt again in Q3, another PM cycle at Year End, repeat. 2) Hyper focus on stack ranking though being promoted as not (recently 12-15% below strong push in some groups). 3) Bar is always rising, but still a number of incompetents slip through the cracks because of how influential (some would say popular) their people manager is in/outside the room. Lots of overhead having HR business partners hired to manage the process of pushing people leaders to meet target distribution. 4) Constant change, and chase after the next shiny object. Have seen BAU work that keeps engine running be considered less important. 5) Very heavily scrutinized by regulators 6) Push that we are a tech company that happens to be a bank but legacy systems and clunky tech infrastructure makes it difficult to get things done, and takes forever to implement tech solutions (would also help if we had more consistently competent product managers, there are some really good ones, would be lucky if C1 manages to keeps them) 7) Overly complex, consensus driven decision process (lots of mtgs, lots of people in the mtg to make one decision) 8) of recent, a number of hush hush layoffs (aka reduction events) throughout enterprise, explained as preparation for recession even though it is widely known within associates as pandemic over hiring had they were greatly profitable last two years, and then explained as being too lenient during pandemic and need to prevent the bar from slipping 9) hybrid policy (2-3 days per week) with mgt monitoring badge activity 10) not so generous PTO days even though there’s no tracking mechanism 11) shift to Amazon culture with hiring of multiple ex-Amazon execs