Discover Financial

Nice PTO, 401k match, and tuition reimbursement. Overall benefits are good.

Year-end bonus is also good, but at risk as a portion of it is tied to company performance. However, they have paid at target bonus level in the last few years.

There is very little opportunity for growth, especially in IT. Upper management comes up with new initiatives every few years and creates a lot of hype and confusion in the process, rather than solving real problems. There are too many VPs and Directors who come from a project management background. They don’t seem to understand how to run an engineering organization. Some of them probably spent their entire careers at Discover and don’t have any other exposure.

There are some really good leaders too; it just depends on which team you are working with.

Only promotions over the last year have been at the upper management level. A lot of people are leaving for better opportunities, and it’s really sad to see talented people leave.