Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2011-04-03
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

In a decade there, from incredible company with a unique culture - to massive beaurocracy, terrible reward for success.
Pros: Huge name brand.... big balance sheet, strong derivative and alternative asset products.... great place for the resume.
That's it these days....
Cons: Terrible reward for success, team/region-based metrics with no formula (total black box), therefore subject to abuse for political biases. Metrics keep moving against you. You do not get paid for building a business over many years, each year you start from a scratch YoY metrics, no annuitized credit in your pay for past success plus huge sales pressure and expectation. Which is fine for any business in the industry - if they were to pay - If you do exactly the same job any number of other firms you would get paid at least double if not multiple times more, plus get paid for past year success.... also there's no clarity on how the money is cut-up, instead of relying on a perpetual annual disappointment, no matter how good your numbers are.... because politics and petty resentments can overrule your numbers.

The beaurocracy is unbelievably bad, the support is poor 'cheap', and the management in my division are incredibly weak, they get paid on margin growth, and that's clear from the anaemic pay. Healthcare costs go up double digits YoY.

I know this having now gone outside and seen quite how bad the reward structure is compared to others for the same pressure and success. The name remains great, but the reality is the products and support are often better elsewhere, management relies on telling staff that it's worse elsewhere and you basically owe them your pay deficit for using the name. I have no idea why someone would want to build a business over many years here versus several other houses.