Capital Group reviews

Within the department, the attitude has shifted from family and promoting within, to more micromanaged, cut throat, and promote from outside. More and more, the business as a whole seems to hire from outside to fill positions in various other departments as opposed to giving associates the opportunities to prove themselves. It can not be over emphasized that you should heed all the warnings about "speaking your mind", "tell us what you're thinking", "share your observations", "we have an open door policy", "we are very receptive to feedback" and any other variation of those thoughts, ideas, and concepts, because in the end, those are just key words for "open up to us so we can make a judgement about where you're going to go in the company and whether or not we like you". Once you show your hand, your reputation is cemented and no amount of time or change in your behavior will change their opinions in this department. Managers seldom move, Sr Manager never move - so whatever they think of you, is what they think of you. Don't be fooled by the fake compliments, "Kudos", rewards, free lunches, or utilization as a "resource". If you aren't being given opportunities within a few years, they've already made up their minds about who you are and where you're going within the company. Like many reviews have said, AFS doesn't really care about your thoughts or opinions. Whatever you do, don't complain. Maybe you can provide "suggestions", but watch your tone. Consider your delivery method (face to face, privately, in an office, on the floor, or via e-mail) and how it could be perceived by others. Don't be fooled by the rhetoric of accepting feedback or by whatever response Capital Group will provide in response to this opinion. AFS is interested in one thing and one thing only - support whatever idea upper management comes up with, no matter how silly, dumbfounded, and unrealistic it is. If you work there long enough, you will see a change from one process to another and then back again. Mostly a repetition of previous ideas and processes, wrapped in some new meaningless, see through wrapper. So when you see it - smile and exuberantly praise what a great new and fantastic idea is it. Don't be surprised when the process is changed, revised, or reversed weeks, months, or years later. Within AFS, the department is not interested in leaders. They want followers. It's bred into the culture from Senior Management down. Leaders are too disruptive to the status quo within the department. Original ideas - truly and genuinely original ideas about managing associates or the department - are not really well accepted and if they are - expect them to be stuck within the cogs of reviews, analysis, and clarification. The wheels of change move slowly. Ironically, it doesn't seem that the same amount of analysis or clarification is utilized for some of the initiatives that management push forward to the associates. Managers over associates can seem duplicitous. While seeming to care, they are also sometimes the first ones to deliver a negative perception about the associate. Sr managers rarely take the side of the associate, mostly because of limited interaction. So be aware that if you want a new perception from your Sr Manager, start having those one on one meetings with your manage and include the Sr Manager in those meetins. Also, think about setting up maybe quarterly check-ins with the Sr Manager to help develop your interaction and career. Again, be careful. This approach while seemingly almost necessary is a double edged sword. Also remember to have your "work face" on - be prepared with clear ideas that you want to convey, don't get too personal, emotional, or passionate about anything. There are some managers that really do care and support their associates. But there are seemingly more that are only interested in pushing their career objectives and answer to their boss, that it makes the good ones difficult to identify. The greatest incentive they offer and keeps you tethered to the job, is the retirement plan. 15% of your gross income. That being said, I would encourage you to leave on your own terms and don't sit around wasting your time for 6 years for the retirement plan to be vested before leaving. While it is a great benefit, it's also one of the major incentives to stay, but remember, it's not your money, so anything you walk away with is free money. Other companies may offer matching or better overall compensation packages if you know what you are looking for.

-It’s really challenging to move up in this organization. Lured by the prospect of a fabulous retirement plan and decent work-life balance, CG routinely hires ambitious people who are often overqualified for the roles they’re in, which is actually a recipe for disaster when you consider how little room there is for upward mobility. Since most of us are working in what are essentially dead-end jobs and smart enough to realize it, management stresses that we should try to grow horizontally rather than vertically by moving across groups or doing a temporary rotation with another team. However, even the lateral moves feel almost impossible to get. A colleague of mine got a rotation and found out that about seven or eight other people had applied for it. It wasn’t a particularly attractive role, but there was a lot of internal competition for it. Also, even if you do apply for a permanent role as an internal applicant, you’ll be subjected to the same ridiculously lengthy interviews as an external applicant. It makes no sense — shouldn’t your years of great reviews actually count for something? I applied for an internal role and did not get the impression that they had reached out to my manager to discuss what kind of employee I was or that they had looked at my reviews. Shouldn’t there be some sort of benefit to having a proven track record as an employee? -Management can be ridiculously condescending about the lack of opportunities for associates. A top lady in HR closed out a big conference one time by saying something along the lines of, “If your career is in the shadows, that’s because that’s where you have allowed it to be.” It was probably the most tone deaf thing I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t even believe it came out of the mouth of someone in HR. It’s completely fair to put responsibility on associates for speaking up and raising their hand when they would like to be considered for opportunities. But as described above, if you have roughly 8-10 internal applicants for every halfway decent rotation, some people are bound to be disappointed despite making their best efforts to get their careers out of “the shadows.” Be a little more considerate of the frustration that some of us are feeling. -Managers will critique the most inane details of your job performance. They sift through emails that associates send (even internal emails) and question the most minute things. I’ve had emails go through three levels of review before being sent out. It is ridiculous. -Hope to God you never get put on a huge project that moves at a snail’s pace. I’ve attended meetings where it took almost an hour for people to learn that the key decision makers weren’t even invited to the meeting. -The work in my group isn’t very challenging. This might just be my specific group, but I don’t feel like I’ve learned as much as I have in previous outside roles.