Over-promised and under-delivered. - Analyst Barclays Employee Review

2.0
May 22, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Strong, well-respected brand. * Excellent research and market information available to staff * Top tier clients * Very strong leadership team at the team leader / executive level.

Cons

* Extremely bureaucratic, far more than other UK banks I have worked for. Takes too many steps and time to get very simple things done. * The Private Bankers are generally very poor line managers. The firm wrongly assumes that because they manage portfolios they are automatically good people managers. * "Goals" assigned by line managers (ie Private Bankers) are intangible and cannot be independently measured. This leaves your end of year review effectively 100% determined by the mood of your line manager, who sees little, and understands even less, of your role. * Do not support staff to study for professional qualifications, despite promising to do this at interviews and having clear guidelines from HR to do so. * Culture is very "blame" focused, with far more time being dedicated to pointing fingers than actually solving the client's problem.

Explore other reviews about Barclays

5.0
Jul 6, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good environment to work in

Cons

Good environment to work in overall

4.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great starting place for career, learned a ton

Cons

Mixed bag of senior team quality depending on group/vertical Bad culture in certain groups

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