Silicon Valley Bank reviews

We are still learning to grow as a company yet keep that small company feel. Its a good thing but sometimes I wonder if they are biting more than they can handle.

For a long time I felt SVB was a meritocracy. The group you are in may be very siloed from other groups, but you can distinguish yourself with hard work and a little luck. I got to understand early that certain groups and individuals would be waiting for you to trip up, (and seeing how they could help make that so) but if you don't trip up, you would succeed. It's a bet I think many others would be willing to take. Having decompressed from the culture for a few years I learned two things: 1) having to watch your back is not a normal work environment...it's just not 2) SVB wasn't large enough to be so siloed, that was just a consequence of the culture. Functional groups can actually work together willingly and collaboratively. They should. I can only speak definitively to culture created by Greg Becker and his steering committee, but the meritocracy thing definitively and permanently ends once you are in the top 5-10% of the bank. At that point, up is down, black is white and personal politics drive a remarkable amount of strategy. HR is the executor of senior management's will, and great lengths will be taken to achieve that will. Lastly, you will not find this a place where speaking up is terribly encouraged. Vision comes from on high and nowhere else. Very different from even 5 years ago. Those who don't buy in or feel compelled to question, they do so at their peril.