Has had its ups and downs, difficult industry environment may hamper career progression
Pros
- A lot of flexibility and emphasis on work-life balance. Freedom to work from home occassionally is a nice benefit, and a fair amount of vacation time out the gates as a college hire. - High level of involvement in day-to-day work from business directors offers opportunity to learn from experienced / savvy professionals. - Able to make lateral career changes to different departments / lines of businesses as your interests change. - Fairly competitive salary / 401k match. - Decent name recognition if business school is a long term goal. - Strong alumni network if desire is there to leave.
Cons
- Arbitrary differences between some job families. - Richmond is not the most exciting city in the world. - Benefits seem to be trending downward over last few years compared to late 90s. - Difficult credit environment hits credit card companies hard. - Frequent organizational changes can make getting results difficult. - Not all departments are equal during evaluation time. Make sure you're in the right organization. - Tendency to act in extremes, and then change behavior to the complete opposite in reaction to news / markets / audits. - Significant amount of time putting slides together for hour long presentations.