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Smoke and mirrors

Senior Engineer I
Current Employee
Has worked at American Express for 2 years
September 19, 2020
Phoenix, Arizona
1.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Excellent compensation, especially if you get the bonus. Insane amounts of PTO (7 weeks, they let you 'buy' an extra week).

Cons

I could write a novel on the cons. I was hired as an engineer, but I haven't written code longer than five lines since I started here. We just slap spreadsheets into tables, and voila! we're engineers.

Our leader is unable to make and adhere to a decision and severely lacks leadership skills. It has taken us nearly one full year to build a report portal. This is something that could have been done by a group of high school kids in a few weeks.

Trying to bring in external tools to make our jobs more efficient is nearly impossible. The red tape is so thick, it would be faster to build your own operating system than try to buy useful software.

The group I work for seems to want to find problems for their solutions instead of solving actual business problems. I heard a funny term, "resume driven development".

As mentioned in other reviews, AMEX is not a place to grow your skills, but a place to get complacent and cash checks. If you're eager to learn, grow, and do amazing things, keep looking. This is not the place for growth. If you're close to retiring and want to put your feet up on your desk for 7.5 hours a day, welcome aboard.

Advice to Management

You've hired lots of intelligent people, but assign us silly, brainless projects.

Let us work on meaningful projects, and get rid of all the meta meetings.

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