Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2014-07-01
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Never should've left my previous employer...
Pros: 1. HQ is in a good midtown location.
2. The people in my LOB's P&A groups are generally friendly.
3. The company seems to take diversity and inclusion seriously.
4. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in community service activities.
Cons: Having come from another financial services company, I find JPM to be a complete disappointment in terms of compensation & benefits, the quality of people, and mobility options.

1. Salaries in P&A groups are below market rate.  Promotions are considered lateral moves...I've heard of several analysts promoted to associates and they only received 1-3% increases.  There is absolutely no transparency to year-end bonuses...it's completely at your manager's discretion.  The favorites in your group will be 'taken care of' and the rest of you should be lucky to even receive a year-end bonus.

2. The medical/health benefits are average. My previous employer offered a generous MRA/HSA contribution at the beginning of each calendar year, JPM does not (JPM makes four times the profit of my previous employer). You'll have to wait an entire year for the 401K match (my previous employer had a six-month wait).

3. I can't speak for the company overall, but the caliber/quality of P&A employees in my LOB is low.  This company recruits support function (Finance, HR, etc.) employees from second and third tier colleges and it shows in the amount of wasted time and effort it takes to produce plans/forecasts/reporting.  Most employees are resistant to change even though they know current systems and processes aren't efficient.  

Everyone is afraid to leave the office at a reasonable time (5:30/6pm) because of how it will look to their manager/skip-level manager even though they have absolutely nothing to work on so they stay until 7pm or later just to appear dedicated.

People stay at JPM for years, but I think it's out of comfort and the ability to hide in the overwhelming size of the company than the company being a good place to work.

Mobility is very tough, tenured employees say it's nearly impossible to find a role outside your current LOB and it shows; P&A people move to other P&A roles despite their efforts to get out of it.

Diversity exists at the executive director level and below; MDs and above is the old boys' club with a few women allowed.