Don't Do It Unless You Have No Other Option
Pros
- Great people (most of them). - Family-like atmosphere. - Good benefits. - Holiday and Summer-time luncheon. - Lots of jeans days - Settlement monthly celebrations - Flexible schedules
Cons
- You don't need an accounting or finance degree to do this job. And, in fact, a few people don't have them. But it would be nice to have an accounting background. - High volume work. Daily reconciliations and journal entries. - 2 day month end close (expect to work very long hours). - So many special projects that will last cause you to neglect your daily responsibilities. - Certain roles get laptops. You are not encouraged to work from home unless the company is closed for a state for emergency. I will add that when we had the big snowstorm years ago and the Gov. declared it a state-of-emergency, Global Payments stayed open. This was before we had laptops. And if you couldn't come in, you had to use your personal time. But now that there are laptops, if you get one, you have the option of working from home or using personal time during a state of emergency. - Vacation time doesn't carry over (use it or lose it) - Promotions are hard to come by unless someone leaves and you have been working there for a very long time (or are in good rapport with the Controller and Asst. Controller). - Severely low salaries. If you get an offer, it means that they really want you and really NEED you. They will not offer you a decent salary. So even if the number seems impressive, you could AND should get more (because you will WORK HARD). So negotiate a higher salary. Trust me! If they don't offer you the position, don't worry about it. If you're coming from an accounting background, you're not missing much. - Your annual increase will never be more than 4% (that's why you need to negotiate your initial salary). You have to practically sleep there every day to possibly win the employee of the month award in Settlement. There is a Global Payments Commitment & Accountability Award and Circle of Excellence Award which have great rewards, but be ready to offer up your first male child along with frankincense and myrrh to get them OR be very good friends with and do a lot of work for the Controller and the Asst. Controller. Those are the only ways, folks. - "Have Fun" was on the mission statement when Paul Garcia was the President. It is not there anymore and that's good, because if it were there, it would be a lie. - SO MANY positions are being dissolved or transferred to Canada, UK or (mostly) the Philippines. It can happen to anyone. So this will always make the 6 month business outlook look good. They are maintaining the same number of employees, but spending less on salaries. Good for investors. Bad for the teams who lose great quality of work that they usually never get back due to learning curve and just the lack of decent training. - Temps, depending on the team they join, don't get treated very well.