American Express reviews

4.1

82% would recommend to a friend

(18,641 total reviews)
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Stephen J Squeri

89% approve of CEO

79% positive business outlook

American Express has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 18,641 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The American Express employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finanzas industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
1.0
Jul 3, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Team Members are friendly and will assist you with questions and will always help you.

Cons

Stressful, unrealistic expectations by management, low pay, and low paying incentives. In the RLA segment under the Account Services (Credit) Department we are expected to deliver negative information to card members such as why we lowered their credit limit or cancelled their Amex account but do it in a way so that we may get a possitive T-Bass (Employee Survey e-mailed to the card members we interacted with). This segment (RLA/Dart) pays the least in incentives. The way raises work (raises are rated 1, 2 or 3 with "1" being the best. is that the Company will only allow a certain small percentage to get a "1," and then there is another percentage that will be rated as "2." Finally there is the percentage that will be rated as "3." So, if there are a number of employees in a segment who are all about equal, the team leaders get together and plead their case as to who should be rated as "1,"

4.0
Jun 3, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Colleagues are generally smart, and great to work with. -People can move laterally or post for promotions. Interview process determines the outcome of postings. -Leaders in the company are generally very reasonable and smart. -After a few years, it can feel like a small place.

Cons

-Different groups have vastly different cultures -Salaries can be on the lower side. The company prides itself on providing work-life balance, but when you are an overachiever.....it's hard to see the balance part as much

4.0
Mar 1, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Once you're in the company, there are many opportunities to move around and try different roles. The culture of American Express not only encourages this, it expects it. Lower and mid level employees must stay in role 18 months, but are then encouraged to find a new role. The culture, as a result, is very open and career-oriented. The objective is for each employee to find his/her "dream role." Leaders and Employees have very honest and open conversations about this. Hiring leaders will call current leaders for information about an employee before making an offer. Networking within the company is a must.

Cons

PROCESS, PROCESS, PROCESS! You can't get anything accomplished without the help, approval and support of at least 3 other people/groups in the company. Lead times are long, especially for anything involving technology. Senior leaders often don't understand the process and have unreasonable expectations about how long it can take to complete a project. The downside of the career mobility within the company is that employees that don't switch roles can be looked down on. It is the same story with employees who don't wish to take on leadership roles. Since the downturn in 2008/2009 and the reorgs that resulted, the culture seems to be changing. There is less job mobility, but still the same stigmas for employees that don't move. Hiring freezes and reorgs are frequent and company morale seems low. Many groups want to hire from the outside to bring in new skills, so the open, career-oriented culture feels like it is changing. The company seems much less supportive and much more results-focused.

Viewing 427 - 429 of 18,641 Reviews

Glassdoor has 21,999 American Express reviews submitted anonymously by American Express employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if American Express is right for you.