Pershing reviews

Picture a stereotypical 1980s firm. Outdated technology, entrenched and ineffective middle management on a power trip after finally getting the promotion they've patiently waited for for 15+ years, and a so far disconnected upper management team who has no idea whats going on on the ground floor. There is the perpetual churn of young people who come in out of college with high hopes (I was one of them), and end up leaving for better opportunities. Those remaining are the "lifers", who have sat in the same cubicle, performing the same mundane tasks, complaining about the same things... for decades. This is Pershing. At Pershing, there is no incentive to over perform, take on new initiatives, improve processes, etc. The only reward for being good at your job is more work. If you do something great and save the company money, you may even get a free AMC movie ticket and a pat on the back. Oftentimes, if you are really good at your job, you are blocked from moving to other departments because you are too valuable to your existing one. Don't be fooled by the recruiting pitch... it is not easy to move into new roles, and they do not care about your development or career aspirations. Let me be very clear here, YOU ARE A WORKER ANT, that is all. If you are looking for a steady paycheck, where you can come in, keep your head down, do your 8 hours, and go home, this is the place for you. Otherwise, avoid if you are looking to grow your career. Lastly, the pay is well below the market rate, and loyalty and high performance will not impact your pay whatsoever, so don't bother putting in years of your life expecting something that will never come to fruition.

Aims at the mediocre in terms of compensation, products, culture, people. Changes from BNYM parent are almost all negatives -- emphasis on risk mgt and resiliency instead of innovation and improvement leads to CYA mentality and unbelievable levels of bureaucracy. Current move is toward co-location, removal of remote working privileges, open plan offices -- all negatives for work/life balance, autonomy, and work environment that are based on weak management oversight and specious research masking blunt instrument cost cutting. Senior management have insanely long tenures, enforcing groupthink, clubbiness, rigidity. Closing gender pay gap not a priority. Lip service paid to attracting younger workers, top-grade candidates is just that -- clearly not a priority for the firm or its parent. Long-overdure technology retirements are persistently put off in favor of adding new clients to old platforms as client churn increases. Real product development is consistently deprioritized in favor of patching up old, broken systems/processes/products. Pound-foolish spending abounds so many attainable improvements are never funded -- even though firm remains profitable. New BNYM CEO is a smarmy shill leading a far more management-challenged gaggle of businesses; they are going nowhere fast. Mediocre Pershing is a crack team in comparision, but needs to go its own way to return to the level of quality it once represented.