Run away! - Anonymous employee Visa Inc. Employee Review

1.0
Jun 4, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great if you want an inflated title and paycheck: thousands of “directors” and “sr directors” with no direct reports. Brand name looks good on your resume. Near-monopolistic business model means the company makes tons of money no matter how poorly it’s managed. Strong benefits.

Cons

Stay far, far away if you are an experienced professional. Don’t assume the director or senior director title and fat paycheck they give you means your skills and experience will be valued. Visa routinely hires people with lots of experience, then treats them like entry-level employees. Zero autonomy or decision-making authority. Everything you do, and I mean EVERYTHING, must be approved by multiple layers of management. There is lots of talk of improving “tools and process,” but no visible progress, and it remains painfully hard to get anything done. Since no one is empowered, no one takes accountability for anything. Sr leaders do not care at all about employees and continuously make bad decisions (or fail to make any decision at all!) without a thought to how employees are impacted. Many managers with terrible people skills. Employee survey has shown declining engagement for a decade. Read lots of Glassdoor reviews before you consider working here: there’s a reason this company cannot get up to even a “3” rating.

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Visa Inc. Response
8y
Sorry to hear about your experience. We’ve just communicated the results of our employee survey and engagement continues to trend upward. It was great to see an over 94% response rate and there were no scores that declined this year – with employees reporting a high level of pride and willingness to recommend Visa as a place to work. Our CEO Al Kelly has challenged employees at all levels to act as leaders and be personally empowered. Everyone at Visa is expected to act decisively, openly communicate and enable and inspire great work – removing barriers to success.

Explore other reviews about Visa Inc.

5.0
Jun 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Agile for its size and age

Cons

Difficult industry to navigate. New competition.

2.0
Jun 25, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent work-life balance, strong 401(k) match, and generally good benefits. There are smart, hardworking people across the company from all walks of life, and the Visa name still carries weight on a resume.

Cons

The work-life balance comes with a tradeoff: innovation moves at a glacial pace. In my experience, Visa was a highly political organization where visibility and relationships often mattered more than performance. Career growth felt slow, especially for high-performing mid-career employees looking to expand their scope or take ownership. There was constant organizational churn. In two years, I had three managers and made it through multiple reorgs, but our entire team lived in constant fear of ongoing layoffs. Layoffs and restructuring felt far more common than leadership acknowledged, which created a disconnect between company messaging and employee reality. The lack of trust for executive leadership is readily apparent across all internal channels. My org was not particularly valued, compensation lagged the market, and the return-to-office rollout was/continues to be handled poorly and rigidly. If you're looking for stability, predictable work, and reasonable hours, Visa can be a good fit. If you're a high performer looking for speed, creativity, ownership, and growth, there are better places to spend your time (and your paycheck will probably be higher).

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