Vantaggi
The Accountant II position is considered an exempt position, and therefore overtime eligible. 401k match is 6%, and the company does have a pension plan. If you are starting out in the industry, you will learn a lot about insurance, both domestic and international. The health plan is good, and not as expensive as other companies I've worked at, but I've heard other people complain about the costs.
Svantaggi
Culture: The current culture is hostile. During my first week, a coworker asked what I had done over the weekend. I answered that my partner and I had spent the weekend out of town. The very next day, management called me into the office to tell me that although they didn't have a problem with me being gay, I should keep my personal life "personal". Point taken...and in the last 5 years...i've not said another personal thing about myself for fear of retribution. The current RPR rating system is impossible. Goals are supposed to be written by March. I've gotten my goals the last three years in late June. The mid year review is in July. Each year, you are to rate your performance against your coworkers, providing specific reasons why you deserve a better grade than your coworkers. It helps to save information and documents that show coworker errors and submit them as part of the argument for your own grade. The system is set that a certain percentage must have a bad grade. Work life balance: It's slowly getting better. In my first year, I doubled my yearly salary with the amount of overtime I was working. To leave the office before your manager is unheard of, and generally we would leave after 8pm. Over the last year, a mandatory no overtime policy has been put into place. However, management will still schedule meetings after 5pm, thus you end up working for free. Career opportunities : Disappearing rapidly. The company has indicated that all finance and accounting positions are to be transferred to a "Financial Center of Excellence" were are located in either India or Colombia. The operations positions are being transferred first with an end goal of 2015. Overall, this will be thousands of jobs worldwide. Benmoche (the soon to be ex-CEO) informed employees in the New York City area that we shouldn't make any major purchases, as the future of our jobs are still unsure. Emailing colleagues becomes a guessing game, as when emailing someone who is laid off, the message will bounce back as "recipient is hidden". It is common to hear a gasp from a cubicle and the phrase "XXX is now hidden!" Compensation: Negotiate high when you join the company. There is a NO RAISE POLICY. The only way to increase your pay is to switch positions in the company, but the competition is fierce for these positions with so many people world wide being laid off. Be prepared and ask high.