This is your warning, stay away
If you want a complete picture go look at the reviews for BofI Bank of Internet (Most creative name ever I know) and you’ll see this place has a history of poor culture and more turnovers than a bakery. Good luck building any working relationships when people leave through a revolving door.
Don’t let them imply that this is a startup or a fintech company by any means. It’s been in business 20 years, it’s not a startup, it’s playing catch up. There is no startup culture. There are no sponsored events or team building. The culture is cold, dark, and emotionless. Don't expect work-life balance. It's frowned upon if you only work 40 hours a week. You are disposable.
COVID response has been an embarrassment and continues to be a farce. For a bank that prides itself on having few physical branches, and being “banking evolved”, half the workforce was required to come in everyday to the office. Now pretty much everyone is back. Literally 2 whole buildings, 30 floors, and we are the only company still coming in. Shoot, someone even called the cops on us. No work from home even if you have a laptop and VPN. Like what’s the point? If you wanted to wfh, you had to get special permission and document every single minute of work. Talk about widespread distrust and micromanagement. Not to mention they record your screen and track your browsing and mouse to make sure you’re working. This is everyone, no matter where you’re working. Hello, we’re adults here and goodbye privacy. It definitely starts at the top. Apparently, the CEO and senior executives can just ignore wearing a face mask. Like can you at least pretend to care? You do have older employees besides the fresh college grads eager to earn $19/hr. Doesn’t surprise me, when I first interviewed, there was Fox News blaring in the entrance lobby. There’s a self-serve thermometers at each door, but I guarantee you no one uses them. Add to that you have employees still going out on weekends, getting exposed, coming back to the office, only to leave because they have to go get tested. Oh, it’s not all bad, we still have communal trail mix in all break rooms. Splendid, I’ll just grab some covid peanuts and m&m’s.
Also, don’t believe the excuse that we aren’t working from home due to IT security concerns. I have colleagues in very similar or identical positions in other banks who have been working from home the entire time. They, and all my friends and family are bewildered that we’re still going in. So, either that’s a lie, or, this “online” bank can’t get their IT security together.
Compensation is below average. They try to justify it by giving larger bonuses. The thing is half the bonus is stock, which vests over 3 years. So, assuming you get a bonus after your first 6 months, you won’t even see 1/3 of that until a year later. So, 1.5 years to see a fraction of it. Annual cost of living increases is not given to everyone. Stock doesn’t help much when you’re not in the tax bracket to benefit from it, and most people leave before 2 years anyways. The 401k is just disrespectful. You only get a match in stock. This stock does not begin to vest until 2 years, so basically nothing. Then it takes a full 6 years to vest fully. This wouldn’t be so bad if the stock has performed well, but take a look it (NYSE:AX) and you’ll see growth is stagnant.
The best is when we’re given a half day before Christmas and are told it’s a “gift” from the CEO. Don’t expect to get July 3 off if it falls on a Friday either.
