Goldman Sachs reviews

Very low pay for financial planners/analysts. You will be better off to start your career elsewhere and with any pay raises will make much more than a financial planner/analyst here in almost any other professional environment after a few years. My personal experience is promotion without any increase in pay, bonus or COLA adjustment year after year. This is not out of the ordinary. Now think of that, truly, doing a good enough job to be promoted without anything but a title change. Does that happen anywhere else? Expected to work long hours, help pick up work load from others overworked with zero gratitude from management. Moral is extremely low and has changed dramatically over the 5+ years of working there. You will be told if you give up 5 to 10 years of your life you can make account manager which is the only job worth having in financial counseling. The AM job is very high paying and if you make it there would be happy with your choice to work there, but really have to compete for it and being a good employee/worker is not all that is needed. This is a very political company, while this is true to an extent in any business, AYCO is extreme here. Above all else, your career progresses by working for and being liked by the right people as long as you are a decent employee. You need to work for the right people that care about getting you promoted or have a voice with senior management or you have virtually no shot of moving up in any capacity and that is outside of your control. There is very little transparency in bonuses, pay, etc. Worked at an office that broke new company records for new AUM in a year and no year end bonuses were given out because "Goldman" did not have a great year. This is not atypical, as every year now it seems bonuses, raises, cut expenses etc. will not be given out because of something to do with Goldman Sachs in one way or another. Not sure if this is just the go to excuse or real, but again, very little transparency . Overall, there are a lot of good people to work for or with, it just seems that the company is becoming less and less of what it used to be. Even if you work for a good boss that cares and appreciates your work, that means little as ultimately senior management or the Goldman office makes decisions. Moral continues to decline. This is too bad, because when I started here it was not the case. It seems that the more involved Goldman becomes the more the work environment deteriorates. It may be worth a shot for a few years to see if you can make it and get a name on a resume and training which will open some doors in finding another job. But from my experience, and knowing others that left, you will quickly find that you are overworked and underpaid once you go elsewhere and will really appreciate your new employer.

There's many branches within Goldman. So I can not speak to them all as the company is massive. However for the division I work in I see a few issues. One being that management talks behind the backs of the employees. Also that if someone is not doing well in the division, it's openly known on the floor. I've had one co-worker who had really no business knowing another co-workers standing talking to me about "His numbers" and how poorly he does, and basically what a looser he is. If this was one isolated incidents it would be one thing, but it just isn't. I've had this come up in meetings with my manager where he discussed the standing of someone and though didn't give an name, gave descriptors that made if fairly clear who he was talking about. I've also noticed that thought they do attempt to coach and help these people, they also treat them like they are total morons, talking just a bit more slowly, or explaining things just a bit more than necessary. This sometimes coming from manager who have only had this and one other job in the two or three years they've actually been old enough to work.... Manager I'm thinking of is 22. It's only his second job. No education past High School talking to an older man with a bachelors and 40 years work experience under his belt. Speaking of age, I have also noticed within our division, no one over a certain age gets promoted. There is a huge age gap in regards to who's moving up and who's not. This I find highly disturbing in that it appears to be clear age discrimination. Though the job is secure, they will not fire anyone for the most part. In all likelihood to avoid unemployment penalties. However they will keep people around bumping down their pay and putting them through Hell trying to push them out. On the surface it's a friendly upbeat environment. Under the surface though it's very very dysfunctional edging on abusive. One last thing to note..... the company is VERY conscious of it's image. They are big on "Reputational Risk." In working here you are told you are forbidden to act in any way politically, like any protests, volunteering with certain groups, etc. So be sure you are willing to trade your civil and constitutional rights fr a pay check. It's to the point that one person who wanted to volunteer with the opera of all things was told she had to get permission from a review board before she could even look at it. Beyond mind boggling.