American Express

• Good work-life balance
• Good 401k match
• Generally good teammates

The career track, while well defined, often feels like a matter of actions speaking louder than words. As a more junior engineer, there were times where I was doing a senior engineer's worth of work, and yet there was hardly any recognition of it in the way of promotion or bonuses.

Ultimately, it feels like the only way to really progress is by being the loudest person in the room, being in a high criticality role, and developing the right connections with VPs and directors to have your name elevated come promotion time.

It can get very political. Some teams refuse to or make it difficult to engage with unless director or VP escalation occurs, which seems extremely counterintuitive.