Is it that bad to get a back- office job at JPM?

Honestly, by the standards of most jobs they're very good. Decent pay, perks, work-life balance, job security etc. Not quite back office, but when I was in corporate banking I remember a guy who for decades had just been doing product documentation and literally nothing else. Dude was really popular all through the office, seemed genuinely happy, apparently had a nice house and close family etc. 

I think people make fun of back office roles because a) they are borderline impossible to turn into front office roles) and b) there's a perception (probably false) that a lot of back office people like to flaunt the BB name. 

In the grand scheme of life, a BO job at MS/GS is better than atleast 90% of jobs out there considering compensation, WLB. You can make MD and can make $300k plus in the majority of BO roles. That's alot more than many lawyers and people in other white-collar professions make. 

A friend of mine has a dad who is a compliance MD at Citi. Home in the hamptons, apartment in NYC. Yeah the work is not sexy but he's still making on par with IB ASO, which is alot of money.

Caveat is that the work is boring, and exits are limited. -- atleast in my opinion

These jobs provide good stability and W/L balance for almost everyone in those roles. It’s nothing to laugh at salary wise as you will have a position that pays a healthy wage to live and retire on.

It all depends what you are after. I can definitely see these roles for people who want a better W/L balance. These things become important as you have a family.

The joke is less that operations is bad and more that some people in back office pretend to be bankers when they aren't.

There's nothing wrong with BO as other replies have said.

I have a good buddy who started career in BO/MO/ operations at JPM. Put in a solid two years and now is an early-ish employee at one of the hottest start-ups in NYC doing IPO and cashing in on stock options and all that. Had another friend who was in more of an IB/MO job there out of college. She is now running her own VC more or less and also an early employee at a hot tech company going to the moon it seems

also for what it’s worth, I heard from like a partner type at PE firm / family office that sometimes it’s better to be a janitor at GS than to be a front office banker at some other lesser shop. It depends. All good options

after working three months in bb ib i cream my pants at the thought of the wlb in back office.

dont listen to the shit on it bro, everything has pros and cons

BO is great if you go into it knowing what it is. It isn't the flashy super high-paying job that IB is, but is a job you can make a career out of and have a comfortable life. If your goal is to go into IB/front office roles, BO is terrible. And if you brag about being at GS when you are in BO, I think you are annoying. But, it is a solid role overall compared to most, just not the role for super type-A high fliers. 

Yes this is disgusting