Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2012-08-26
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Rapidly turning into a white collar sweatshop
Pros: Name on your resume especially if you’re a new grad.  It pays the rent.  Many of your co-workers will be fun and helpful and you may get some good contacts.  Because there are so many lines of business within the organization you can actually see what areas within the industry you like best.
Cons: They’ll make your first six months or so amazing to hook you, but it can only go downhill from there.  The work is pretty soul crushing, while working hard and the quality of your work will mean nothing to your manager, even if they do compliment you or tell you how exceptional your work has been.  (Remember:  They’re paid to do that.)  I guess I can only speak for the AM side of the business but since most of the work is process based.. your manager will make sure they make it obvious you can be replaced.  Not to mention you’ll know how menial your job is.  Performance reviews are garbage and treated as such.  Promotions / bonuses / transfers are all about who you know and what they think about you aka what you’ve done for them lately.  They keep hiring from outside of the firm as if they have no one within the firm that can do said job.  The name on your resume is greattt but you definitely have to leave the firm to really get anywhere in your career.  Everything is completely controlled and it can be pretty hard to move around so once you feel the urge to do something new, get out.  You already have the name on your resume and (hopefully) connections in your pocket. Most of the new managers aren’t really trained or expected to know anything about the group or how to manage people – just how to manage senior management’s expectations.  I bought into that whole work/life balance stuff when I first started but I can assure you they’re saying it to convince themselves more than they are you.  Speaking as an analyst who is pretty well connected around the organization, I can tell you that most of the analysts around my year were pretty miserable and just biding their time until they paid their dues.  Most of my group from analysts to VPs has had one foot out at all times.  I’m pretty sure they “lifers” actually got the few good managers right out of the gate or just love telling their friends and family that they work for JP Morgan and that they’re “important.”

YESS its true that the company feels it can pay you significantly less than the market just because its JP Morgan.  Benefits, employee discounts, etc aren’t all that great either.