No sign of innovation although marketed as Bank of innovation
Pros
Good work life balance, excellent perks, stock doing very well, lot of philanthropy work, good global presence. Excellent client treatment. Very supportive of clients by buying their inferior products, even though there are way better products in the market.
Cons
For being the bank which helps innovators, enterprises and investors move forward fast, the bank struggles to walk the talk in certain areas, with IT the worst one. The COO took charge of IT, and promised to make things better, but things have gone downhill with utter chaos and confusion. SVB needs to realize THE ROOT CAUSE and fix it asap. There is a agile initiative happening in Tiburon, with idea of increased productivity, and FTEs involved are required to travel 2-2.5 hrs one way, with commute involving train system + walk system & ferry system. Talk about increased productivity with 5 hours of precious employee time lost in commute. There had been lot of incompetent hiring in IT senior management, and competent people are suffering, some of whom left and more are on the tipping point. They want to hire talent but talent is not allowed to bring new ideas, and told to learn the svb way first, prove themselves and then bring ideas. By the time talented people prove themselves, the talented people have reached level of incompetency and outdated skills as others. Performance reviews are joke, as rating is already decided by management weeks in advance, and then directs are asked to enter self-reviews. Reviews are based on what others think of you, and not what you have delivered, so everyone joins the race of keeping others happy and stop delivering.