Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2011-02-09
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Great for resume building, not for a long term career for those with ambition.
Pros: The company has many plus sides to be employed as a technologist. The first of which are the vacation times allotted per employee. Technologists are generally given 4 weeks right out of the gate when they join the company. I don't know if that is the case anymore, but it can always be negotiated in the initial hiring process. 
 
      Additionally, the company provides a very flexible workplace experience, technologist's are often involved in pilot programs that improve the day to day work experience. As such, luxuries such as working from home via remote connections, signing up for virtual workstations that can be accessed anywhere, and blackberry adoption are encouraged.
 
      The benefits that are offered to the employee are great and provide coverage for pretty much anything you can ask for. The system also allows for modifications to benefits when life events such as marriage and childbirth occur so you can easily adapt it to changes in your life. 
  
      With the employer being a large financial institution, your 401k organization is generally very well explained with a great management system that allows you to allocate money to funds at your whim. Additionally, the company will match your contributions up to a certain percentage. Granted this only occurs if the company is doing well. 

    The work culture here provides for a very diverse experience. People have been and will always be very accepting, cordial and professional with you. I have never had or seen a conflict in the office that was not resolved quickly or with either party feeling bitter or resentful of the outcome. 
   
      The bottom line is that JPMorgan Chase is a globally recognized brand, as such, attaching the name and experience to a resume gives you instant recognition in casual conversation and helps your resume stand out should you choose to search for a new job.
Cons: The good talking points above also come with a significant amount of bad aspects as well. Unfortunately the biggest drawback to employment here is found in your advancement and compensation process. The system works on a yearly 3 point scale of either meeting, exceeding, or lacking in your performance goals. Only technologists who rate in the exceeds category can stand any chance of  raise that gives the employee an improvement in their consumer purchasing power while the rest of the employees will get a minor pay increase that will possibly cover the cost of inflation over the year. Cash bonuses generally are small for technologists as they don't bring revenue into the bank and therefore shouldn't be a deciding factor when you choose to work there, no matter what any recruiter says. 
   
    Now this ratings system may sound like a fair process, and in theory it is, in practice however it is not. Only ten percent of the entire bank's population of 180-200k employees can get the rating that puts them into a chance to make more money. The process of identifying and placing those employees into the categories is also a purely political process. Placement is often decided by management levels that are several above yours, thus putting your fate into the hands of someone who you most likely never interact with beyond saying "Hello, how are you?" to at Christmas holiday parties. The end result is that the ratings that are desirable tend to go to the supporting employees that directly report to the executives that decide the ratings as they have the most daily interaction with them. This is a broken system that has been acknowledged as such by several senior managers, however, no real action beyond streamlining the current process is being done to correct the system. 

The end result leads to many talented and hardworking employees that are left in the cold over the years that have left many demoralized to the process and untrusting of management when year end review time comes. 
  
   Aside from the big pain point listed above, there are always the nuisances that come from working with a large corporation:

. Bureaucratic red tape: could be used to decorate the halls for every holiday and there would be plenty left over afterward to use as toilet paper. Your going to need a form for everything you do. 

  Reliance on cheap offshore labor: from a bottom line standpoint, it makes sense, cheap labor provides a lower operating cost. However, the companies that are contracted have high turnover rates and in the technology realm you cant rely on keeping your contacts for long. 
  
  Gatekeeper Employees: this term is used to describe the large number of employees that have built processes or permissions solely around themselves to ensure job security. This is especially bad in the technology realm, you will be working with one or two subject matter experts per application. 

  Unqualified Employees: this happens more than one would expect. Often a technology role will not be filled with an employee with much technology experience or none at all. This is a "filler" employee that tends to do an adequate job after a large ramp up time but does not bring much to the table.  

 Office Space moments: yes, this is a reference to the movie that lambasted corporate America. You will have moments that will mirror this movie directly, there's no avoiding it.