Disorganized, Bureaucratic Company with Clueless Senior Management
Pros
Standard advantages of working for a large company: - Decent benefits - Substantial resources (educational, technological) at your disposal - Opportunity to move around into other groups
Cons
Senior management spends so much time pandering to Wall Street that they don't dedicate the attention needed to producing an efficient organization. Every earnings call Charlie drones on about becoming a "more nimble, less market sensitive" company, while the company's operating model remains the same. The company is disorganized and bureaucratic, making it hard to get things done without many layers of approval. This may be changing for the better with the recent layoffs, but time will tell. In addition, the company can be highly political. Promotions or the ability to move into certain groups are often based on having an MBA, or tenure length, rather than the ability and motivation to actually get things done. There are Directors and VPs who are absolutely coasting, while a handful of hard-working individuals pull all the weight. Compensation is often below market, and Senior management celebrates this. On an internal company call, when discussing compensation within the company, Rob Falzon made the hilarious statement of "we don't want our employees to be mercenaries (hired soldiers)" - implying that Prudential employees should be okay with being under-compensated, because Pru makes up for it with such a great "culture." The problem with this, of course, aside from being plagiarized from a Goldman Sachs CEO, is that culture doesn't pay bills. If expenses at the company are a problem, Rob can always volunteer up his generous pay package as the first cost-cutting target.
