Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2009-02-17
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: former

Great experience out of school
Pros: I felt that the position I was in offered a lot of scope in the sense that while I was working in my niche, I had visibility to other groups.  This visibility allowed me to better understand how my role fit into the overall organization.  People often get lost in the details of their particular role, however in order to be truly successful one must understand the bigger picture, and I felt that in this environment if you made the effort to learn more about other areas of the business, it knowledge was easily accessible.  In addition I was able to partake in several training events that were actually beneficial (since then I have been in plenty that were a waste my time).   I also found that the caliber of people I was working with was terrific, and everyone seemed to really have a lot of great experience that I was able to leverage.
Cons: Work life balance can be very difficult, but it really depends on you as a person as well as the group you are in.  If you want to work in an elite area, you must be prepared to work harder and longer.  When I completed undergrad I had the energy and was ready for this commitment however I think that having not experienced the drain that this can be, I was not fully aware of what this commitment really meant.  Having a little more work life balance is important and can definitely be lost site of during the hustle at JPMorgan Chase.