Promontory Financial Group Reviews

Pros

Great place to launch a career in compliance

Pros

Challenging work, learn a lot, take on a lot of responsibility, friendly and helpful staff, variety of work and projects, travel opportunities, opportunity to build a network of amazing and intelligent people, quality work, beautiful offices, generous expense budget

Advice to Management

Offer better support for traveling staff (country work culture basics, housing/accommodation support, other advice that will make it a more pleasant experience)

Pros

Colleagues are friendly and very talented
Interesting work
Nice offices and flexible work arrangements

Advice to Management

Enhance support for learning and career development

Pros

Nice offices. Free premium band bottled water. If you’re related to senior management or can build an “adopted child” rapport with one of the few powerful MDs you’ll get plum assignments, massively better pay than your peers, and rapid advancement all while massive mistakes are overlooked. Only a few have managed to do this, but the rewards are fantastic if you can pull it off.

Advice to Management

+Hire a functional HR department and instruct them to actually investigate complaints
+360 review directors to root out the bad apples
+Stop tolerating abuse and harassment
+Publish the pay and bonus bands at each level
+Stop hiring senior employees while your current staff has no work
+Update travel policies and stop asking employees to travel so much and live on much much less than other firms budget
+Stop letting MDs subvert firm policies

Pros

Promontory is a good home for professionals who want to work really hard alongside really smart colleagues helping big time clients solve big time problems.

The client projects the senior team brings in are typically the cream of the crop intellectually and impact-wise. We regularly get to work with the highest echelons of the biggest firms in the world. Projects range from AML to Consumer to Cyber to the emerging climate change risk area and beyond. Essentially a good mix of bread and butter type work and some cutting edge and out of the box stuff too.

The firm's reputation and integrity are core to the business model and value proposition, so it is actively protected. I have seen client jobs turned down that didn't pass the initial 'sniff test'. The CEO is both a visionary and a real deal good guy.

The new partnership with IBM is probably the coolest thing that has happened in the industry in decades. Competitors are scrambling to put their own partnerships together but in the meantime we have a major head start in the 'regtech' race thanks to the new combo of our team, IBM's team and Watson. PFG remains much the same on a day to day basis since the deal but we have an extra shot in the arm and a new set of game-changing service offerings to offer the industry. It's like when Popeye eats his can of spinach--we are now ‘Super Promontory, an IBM company’!

Given my experiences at the firm, when I read some of the firm's Glassdoor reviews I can't help but wonder whether they are posted by bitter folks who were fired or competitors. While I wouldn't recommend management be dismissive about areas that need attention, I have had a few chuckles at the 'great projects, great colleagues, great pay and benefits, but terrible place to work' contradictory rants.

Advice to Management

1. By the sound of the negative Gdoor reviews, the firm could do a better job 'offboarding' people. Get rid of the entitled lazies quicker, but do it in a way that they remain friends and don’t feel the need to spew their jealousy and alternative facts in the bellows of good ole’ Gdoor and misrepresent the firm that many of us love.

2. Ensure senior managers personally maintain the no-jerk policy, and enforce it throughout their teams as well.

3. Lastly, continue to beef up internal communications and messaging.

Pros

I have had the opportunity to work with world class leadership in New York, and the most amazing junior workforce that support client projects with utmost commitment to excellence. Promontory is led by a visionary CEO that holds everyone accountable to highest levels of integrity, and quality of the work produced for Firm's clients. I will always look back on my experience at Promontory as one of the best I will encounter in my career. I wish the Firm the very best in moving forward through the exciting journey with IBM.

Advice to Management

Keep being positive, open, and lead with example during this next journey, as you always have done.

Pros

Professional career growth. Stable organization.

Advice to Management

Great executive management team!

Pros

Most of the professional staff is very helpful and operate with the highest level of integrity. Some of the smartest and most committed professionals.

Advice to Management

It is very important to nurture and mentor younger staff and help in developing their career paths. Create a better working environment,including social events.

Pros

The pros are few and far between:
-smart junior colleagues
-depending on your practice group, opportunity to work with really solid upper and middle management (the choice of your practice group though is a total crapshoot).
-nice offices
-free coffee and soda

Advice to Management

-Take a page out of any other consulting company's practices and establish merit-based promotions using defined performance metrics.

-Get rid of MDs who don't get business or contribute to project work. There are many and they are expensive.

-Provide more insight on firm performance. Many other consulting firms even go through financials/firm performance with staff. Establish bonus ranges by position to align expectations with reality.

Pros

Inviting environment and great people