Glassdoor Best Places to Work

Glassdoor just came out with its 2011 list of Best Places to work, based on reviews submitted by employees of the companies themselves. Facebook is #1, Southwest is #2 (?) and Bain & Co. is #3. Even though it seems like everyone on here is dying to make it to Wall Street, you might want to be careful what you wish for. Banks don't fare too well, with Goldman the highest at #17, MS at #37, and DB at #48. Consulting must rock, though, with MBB all in the top 20. I was surprised to see Apple so low at #20 and Google at #30, but maybe they're the BBs of the tech world. What do you guys think?

http://www.glassdoor.com/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_…

 

Case study

Bank ABC -has horrible ratings. -Employees think lowly of management. -Morale is low. - pays $150k to a 24 yr old

VS.

Tech Co. -great ratings - employees love each other - morale is high - pays $60k

8 out of 10 people will take the bank job. other 2 will regret it.

End of day, if I am making money, i dont give a fuck about employee rating shit. Toughen up.

 
Don Corleone:
Case study

Bank ABC -has horrible ratings. -Employees think lowly of management. -Morale is low. - pays $150k to a 24 yr old

VS.

Tech Co. -great ratings - employees love each other - morale is high - pays $60k

8 out of 10 people will take the bank job. other 2 will regret it.

End of day, if I am making money, i dont give a fuck about employee rating shit. Toughen up.

can't compare a bank BB to an average tech co. top tech co's pay well over 100k. and they work half the hours. so your analysis is flawed.

 
Best Response

@DonCorleone:I decided to go work in corpdev for a tech firm rather than taking my offers at BB/prestigious boutique investment banks...

Here is my case personal case study (from when I was a first year analyst):

BB/Prestigious Firm: - Consistently work 80-100 hr / week - Pays $70k base + Bonus (let's assume it was really good @ $70K) = $140K to a 22 yr old - You work with assholes all day and everyone generally hates being there; they dump work on your last minute and treat you like shit. - You have little social life - Taking vacations, etc. is pretty tough - Exit Options: lateral to another bank, MBA, PE, HF, VC, CorpDev/CorpStrat, etc.

vs.

Tech Firm (Finance/CorpDev): - Consistently work 40-50 hr / week - Pays $75k base + Bonus $15K + Stock Options $15K = $105K to a 22 yr old - Morale is high; people are nice and enjoy working there; no one dumps work on you and every treats each other well. - You have lots of extra time to do whatever you want when you can leave the office everyday at 4-5pm. - Vacation and working remotely policy is lax...to the point that I took 20 vacation days + 10 paid holidays (usually landed as 3 day weekends) of vacation that year ...and then i went and worked from my family's beach house in the caribbean for 1.5 months. no one cared. - I did very similar work to the things my friends did at ibanks (learned the same kind of things, etc.) - Exit Options: lateral to another corpdev/corpstrat team, MBA, PE, VC, etc.

Not to mention that the city I work in is much cheaper (from both a COL and tax perspective) that the $35K different in pay doesn't matter...i can assure you I have a better lifestyle than any of my banking, PE, HF, etc. friends they make may a bit more $ but they don't enjoy it...I makes slightly less, live in a cheaper city, and live like a king compared to my banker friends in NYC and London.

You still think 8 people would choose option #1 and 2 would regret not choosing it?

 
harvardgrad08:
@DonCorleone:I decided to go work in corpdev for a tech firm rather than taking my offers at BB/prestigious boutique investment banks...

Here is my case personal case study (from when I was a first year analyst):

BB/Prestigious Firm: - Consistently work 80-100 hr / week - Pays $70k base + Bonus (let's assume it was really good @ $70K) = $140K to a 22 yr old - You work with assholes all day and everyone generally hates being there; they dump work on your last minute and treat you like shit. - You have little social life - Taking vacations, etc. is pretty tough - Exit Options: lateral to another bank, MBA, PE, HF, VC, CorpDev/CorpStrat, etc.

vs.

Tech Firm (Finance/CorpDev): - Consistently work 40-50 hr / week - Pays $75k base + Bonus $15K + Stock Options $15K = $105K to a 22 yr old - Morale is high; people are nice and enjoy working there; no one dumps work on you and every treats each other well. - You have lots of extra time to do whatever you want when you can leave the office everyday at 4-5pm. - Vacation and working remotely policy is lax...to the point that I took 20 vacation days + 10 paid holidays (usually landed as 3 day weekends) of vacation that year ...and then i went and worked from my family's beach house in the caribbean for 1.5 months. no one cared. - I did very similar work to the things my friends did at ibanks (learned the same kind of things, etc.) - Exit Options: lateral to another corpdev/corpstrat team, MBA, PE, VC, etc.

Not to mention that the city I work in is much cheaper (from both a COL and tax perspective) that the $35K different in pay doesn't matter...i can assure you I have a better lifestyle than any of my banking, PE, HF, etc. friends they make may a bit more $ but they don't enjoy it...I makes slightly less, live in a cheaper city, and live like a king compared to my banker friends in NYC and London.

You still think 8 people would choose option #1 and 2 would regret not choosing it?

You're living the dream.

 
harvardgrad08:
@DonCorleone:I decided to go work in corpdev for a tech firm rather than taking my offers at BB/prestigious boutique investment banks...

Here is my case personal case study (from when I was a first year analyst):

BB/Prestigious Firm: - Consistently work 80-100 hr / week - Pays $70k base + Bonus (let's assume it was really good @ $70K) = $140K to a 22 yr old - You work with assholes all day and everyone generally hates being there; they dump work on your last minute and treat you like shit. - You have little social life - Taking vacations, etc. is pretty tough - Exit Options: lateral to another bank, MBA, PE, HF, VC, CorpDev/CorpStrat, etc.

vs.

Tech Firm (Finance/CorpDev): - Consistently work 40-50 hr / week - Pays $75k base + Bonus $15K + Stock Options $15K = $105K to a 22 yr old - Morale is high; people are nice and enjoy working there; no one dumps work on you and every treats each other well. - You have lots of extra time to do whatever you want when you can leave the office everyday at 4-5pm. - Vacation and working remotely policy is lax...to the point that I took 20 vacation days + 10 paid holidays (usually landed as 3 day weekends) of vacation that year ...and then i went and worked from my family's beach house in the caribbean for 1.5 months. no one cared. - I did very similar work to the things my friends did at ibanks (learned the same kind of things, etc.) - Exit Options: lateral to another corpdev/corpstrat team, MBA, PE, VC, etc.

Not to mention that the city I work in is much cheaper (from both a COL and tax perspective) that the $35K different in pay doesn't matter...i can assure you I have a better lifestyle than any of my banking, PE, HF, etc. friends they make may a bit more $ but they don't enjoy it...I makes slightly less, live in a cheaper city, and live like a king compared to my banker friends in NYC and London.

You still think 8 people would choose option #1 and 2 would regret not choosing it?

  1. to get ur tiny 15k bonus, u need to throw in more hours. Bend over backwards and prove yourself worthy, show others that you put in extra work, you deserve the extra $
  2. stock options are just stock options. If it aint cash, it doesnt matter. So realistically, its 75+15k + another 20 hrs/week minus stock options. 90k / 70hrs
  3. analyst at tech corp. dev. its fucking corp dev ! - they laugh @ corp dev monkeys. comparing corp. dev analyst to BB analyst is like comparing NBA rookie point guard to a YMCA pick up PG. Sure, you're a point guard, but its fucking YMCA
  4. finally, 5-6 yrs from now, ur buddies @ PE will be reviewing your resume sitting on other side of table when you'd go there asking for a better "buy side" job.

that said, for a 22 yr old, you have done better than most 22 yr olds.

 

Frankly, I'd be happy at working at any of the top 100 companies in the country. Being on that list is nothing to laugh at...

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

just to respond to a few of your points:

  1. I wouldn't say that's necessarily true...the example was more of a real life case study of my first year. I pretty consistently worked 40-50 hr / week and got that kind of bonus - no bending over backwards, etc., etc.
  2. This is definitely true it's not cash. These options, generally vest 20% each year over a 5 year period, so you benefit is delayed. Once you've been at the company for 5 years is really when this comp component is nice because if you've gotten 15K + 25K + 45K + 55K + 70K in options awarded over 5 years then on the 5th year is when it starts to materially impact your total comp - as that year you'll be looking at getting like $40K+ in vested options.
  3. I'm not sure the comparison makes sense since most of the people on corpdev teams are former bankers. It's not like NBA players leave and go play YMCA basketball. At my company most come from GS, MS, Evercore, Moelis, etc. In all reality the work/skills in coprdev are just an extension of what you did in banking - albeit more narrow from an industry and also from the type of products (i.e. you really only work on M&A and divestitures...no IPO, LBO, cap raising, etc. type work - i guess these may be possible at smaller firms but im focusing here of F50 corpdev).
  4. They may be...but I would say that the vast majority of corpdev folks have little interest in PE. Most actually want to stay in a corporate environment and eventually become business leaders there or make a move into VC - where having industry/corpdev/operational/strategy experience is quite valuable. That said, a few friends of mine in corpdev have been able to make the jump to mega-funds (TPG, KKR, Carlyle, etc.) so even if their friends were the ones reviewing their resumes when these guys were asking for a "better" buy side job they were still able to land these opportunities.

Look the point of my "case study" was just to prove, going with the general theme of this thread, that banks don't do well in these kind of rankings because the only real benefit they offer is money (and potentially open up some exit opps that may not be available to non-bankers). My point was also to prove that there are other paths you can take that offer a better lifestyle with great comp and, as much as bankers don't like to believe it as most try to justfiy their choice because of this reason, rather similar exit options.

 

I guess in the end it's just a lifestyle decision...I'm 24 now I work on average 40-50 hours a week making $95K base + $20K bonus + $30K in options, I have enough time to spend doing what I want and not just working all day, I can take time to go travel 1-2 a month for fun, I live in a cheaper city that affords gives me a better quaility of life, etc. All I know is that I'm happy while most of my banking & PE friends are not.

In all reality if i can get to a level of $1M+ total comp per year by the time my kids go to college (meaning ~ 20+ yrs down the line) I will be extremely satisfied. It's definitely not an unrealistic goal, at least at my current company, to achieve this...I think that it's actually quite feasible to reach this level by my mid-late 30s while still being able to enjoy my life.

 

Glassdoor is biased and this list takes in consideration; compensation, work/life balance, benefits and all.. If you get the job, congrats, prepare to get worked in the ground while someone from bain and mckinsey is getting paid more and prob taking a vacation day..

 

Wao, do I really deserve all the monkey shit??? I was making a joke and clearly it doesn't come across that way :'(

Nevermind then!

My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil - JP Getty
 
Quarterlife:
Wao, do I really deserve all the monkey shit??? I was making a joke and clearly it doesn't come across that way :'(

Nevermind then!

Customarily, jokes are funny.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

"Wao, do I really deserve all the monkey shit??? I was making a joke and clearly it doesn't come across that way :'("

Also, you spelt "wow" as Wao...bigger fag

I eat success for breakfast...with skim milk
 
Quarterlife:
@TonyPerkis: That's because I'm a girl dbag!

Yet women want to be treated equally...hmmm.....

Inb4 manhattan comes to save the day.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 
whaat:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spelt

lol indeed, but unfortunately this is not a british forum and using words spelled differently from common american english will just make you look silly...as examples, colour and favourite are technically words, but they're wrong in american english.

So it's just an American forum? Everyone who wasn't born, raised and works in the US can't post? Or if he/she does they have to rewrite it so it sounds american? Are expressions like y'all required? Sorry about the questions, I thought it was a global forum (people talking about London, Hong Kong probably misled me) and the only requirement was to write in ENGLISH. Thanks for the heads up though.

 
whaat:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spelt

lol indeed, but unfortunately this is not a british forum and using words spelled differently from common american english will just make you look silly...as examples, colour and favourite are technically words, but they're wrong in american english.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wrong

Does. not. compute.

 

@All: I hope you realize the thread is a joke right at the beginning (much like when you watch a superficial show and it goes "bwhoohoohoo I don't get into top 5 Miss.Sunshine bwhoooohoooo". Obviously nobody took it that way and apparently I'm both a prestige whore AND a gender equality card player because someone called me a fag (twice) and I didn't like it.

Anyway, lesson learned! Hope all of you have a good laugh and Merry Xmas :D

@bbjhva: Thanks for being kind to me as always. Btw are you spending your holiday in Singpore? Visited the city last week and absolutelyyyy lovedddddddddd it. Hopefully I'll get the chance to work there :D

My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil - JP Getty
 

"@bbjhva: Thanks for being kind to me as always. Btw are you spending your holiday in Singpore? Visited the city last week and absolutelyyyy lovedddddddddd it. Hopefully I'll get the chance to work there :D"

I didnt know singapore was a city

I eat success for breakfast...with skim milk
 

Autem vero voluptatibus accusamus magnam voluptas voluptatem et. Nulla temporibus sit quibusdam at iusto necessitatibus et. Est fuga quod illo quia.

 

Qui assumenda ut quisquam. Tempore animi sit aperiam provident. Nihil et alias libero reiciendis necessitatibus. Cumque possimus hic rerum vero excepturi inventore alias. Odio ipsa consectetur aspernatur id.

Sed qui totam sint ea eum ut omnis. Illo alias et harum qui nesciunt consequuntur. Accusantium sit minus eos veniam nulla unde esse voluptates. Sunt veniam velit repellendus saepe vel. Voluptate officia iste repudiandae impedit. Vel dolor doloribus officia doloribus non. Molestiae sed dolor et et itaque inventore.

Career Advancement Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (87) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
10
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”