Silicon Valley Bank reviews

4.0

75% would recommend to a friend

(1,426 total reviews)
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Marc Cadieux

82% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Silicon Valley Bank has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,426 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Silicon Valley Bank employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
1.0
Jun 26, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits and pay along with flex work hours

Cons

Our CIO Beth Devin has turned out to be a nightmare. I used to be filled with hope when she first joined a year + back, but she has steadily proven through her actions that she doesn't have a clue--and doesn't care to get a clue. She let go one of our best senior leaders in engineering recently and that seems to be the nail in the coffin. He was the only one seemingly with a vision as our CIO keeps flip flopping from one priority to another depending on the week. Now, nobody in the senior management team is trustworthy and they are all tainted--everyone is scared and out for themselves at the expense of the company and IT which is the real tragedy unfolding here. The CIO actually gave a speech after she made her "breath of fresh air" moves that if your not with her on her latest moves, get out of the company. Inspiring. Great values. Message: agree with me or get fired. Others in the company who are really outstanding contributors and know their stuff are getting sidelined and marginalized---a disaster in the making as they scramble for the exits. Who is going to be left to do the work? Im sure the CIO will continue to blame others for her own failures as she likes to prattle on constantly about taking more ownership and accountability yet doesn't follow her own rules. The two posts on here applauding the CIO are very poorly done plants--its well known in IT that she asked her remaining leadership team to post positive items due to prospective recruits reading what is really going on. Don't listen to them, IT is truly hell. CIO has done nothing in over a year except demotivate and disrupt the entire IT operation. Her new hires in management are weak--either know nothing about IT or are slow, scared, and ineffective. Don't know much about the last CIO, but it had to have been better than this!

2.0
Sep 7, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Unlimited PTO for salaried, 22 days for hourly. Employees receive 11 bank holidays, 10 sick days, 1 volunteer day, corporate match, ESPP, profit sharing vested at 5 yrs, 401k match, various wellness perks.

Cons

Rigid policy to apply for internal roles. You need manager and HR approval before applying for an internal role. If manager is vindictive person, they approve you but couple weeks later PIP you and then cannot get the role. Other problem is staying on the same team and get “promoted” but you really aren’t developing or learning new skills that make you a competitive hire in eyes of other companies. You’re still doing the same stuff you did before. External hires should not accept a role at SVB if not sure they will get support from manager when wanting to apply for new opportunities in other areas of the company down the road. Your experience here really depends on your manager and team. Internal recruiters not good either. Very slow. Slacker culture in several teams. Deadlines aren’t taken seriously, people show up online at 10-11am PST, take too much time off during critical times and nothing gets done. Signs of layoffs are looming (hiring freeze, bad earnings, senior leaders leaving company). Some teams are good, some are on chopping block. Would like to stay here but given poor management and choppy waters overall for company at this time, will look elsewhere. I will consider coming back if things change.

5.0
Aug 9, 2022

Analysis of SVB Technology Org & Leaders

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I am going to give insights of SVB Tech Org (CIO Org) & the leaders for any SVB future aspirants. This is not going to be a typical Glassdoor review. - First of all, CIO is a very matured leader & well liked by one and all. Very apolitical and straight forward. Comes across as a little too dry, but a nice guy when you get to know him. His recent hiring/promotion decisions confirm he has an eye for talent for sure. You will see the examples below. - To give you an idea - CIO has a set of Divisional CIOs & a CTO (leader architecture) reporting to him and based on the leader, the org's sub-culture could be totally different - while overall SVB culture is one of the best in banking. So beware and read carefully. Here are quick insights into how each leader and their org functions. - Commercial Bank CIO: OPEN role as the prior one was moved out to a different role. The whole organization is welcoming the change. No need to say more. - CTO: Chaos in it's purest way! This org is notorious for immature leadership practices & struggles to deliver the simplest things. Many HR investigations happened & happening. Attrition is very high. The whole org is desperately waiting for a change. - Infrastructure/Tech Ops CIO: They got a great guy one year back from a big bank. Mature, funny and likable leader and has certainly cleaned things up and made it better in the last year. SVB CIO scored big points for this hire. - Corp Systems CIO: Leader is a nice guy, but that's it. Not much leadership and has no clue of what's going on. Has no control over his teams, clients and for that matter, anything. No one seem to be listening to him. Nice guy though. - SVB Private Bank CIO: This guy seems to be real deal. Very seasoned, No-BS and approachable. Has built credibility with business (which is rare for a tech leader in SVB). Known for producing results - not just talk. A great move on SVB CIO's part to hand pick and elevate this guy when they acquired a wealth company (Boston private). Data CIO: Again, another recent great move by the SVB CIO to elevate an internal engineering leader. Another go getter and decent guy. Comes across little laid back - but very professional and knows what he is doing. Seasoned & well-liked by all. Overall, big credit to the SVB CIO for making the right moves with his last few leadership picks (and unpicks) and giving the org a hope for future. If he follows this trend, SVB Tech will soon become a great place to be! All in all - SVB is a full package - great company with values, great compensation , Caring EC, and growing like crazy (Easily, the fastest growing bank in the US). You should consider being part of this growth story - just watch out for where you land in the tech org though.

Cons

See the pros section, as there are enough cons embedded in there already :-)

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