Pros
* Good perks * Some very smart people to work with
Cons
* Not up to date with tech. Even though there are talks to upgrade things this is just talk. Nothing ever comes out of it. My skills are actually worse since i joined * Ambitious projects which will never work out because of the lack of tech. All they will ever become is a slide in a presentation somewhere. No niche solution will be used in production or anything. * Abusive managers. I cannot stress this one enough. It depends on the team but in every team i have been there was always one manager who thought abuse, yelling and belittling his subordinates was a good idea * Constant reorgs and hiring freezes. In the time i have been there there were 2 reorgs and a constant hiring freeze. * Massive attrition which also means that given the hiring freeze the people staying have to do everything. People leaving constantly doesn't raise any HR flags. No one cares if a team of 20 suddenly becomes a team of 8. It is BAU. * Below market salary * A lot of people who have been there for more than a decade and cannot understand that things have to change at some point. Banking is still viewed as a job for life for some generations and that leaves no space for younger people * Promotion is hard. If you dare to question anything you go directly in a blacklist. You just have to nod and smile constantly for about 10 years if you want to get promoted. Young people with great end of year reviews do not manage to get anywhere most of the time and they end up leaving. * You get sucked in a world of bureaucracy which i can only describe as kafkaesque. While I understand this is a massive organisation and certain things have to be regulated this is on a whole new different level. I have worked in big organisations before but they were lightyears more efficient than Barclays
