William Blair reviews

4.3

83% would recommend to a friend

(445 total reviews)
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Brent Gledhill

92% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

William Blair has an employee rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on 445 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The William Blair employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

445 reviews
1.0
May 26, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Few financial opportunities in Chicago, and this would be considered the biggest and most stable of the other firms Strong reputation for a midwestern/regional bank

Cons

- Lacks in professionalism - not diverse and friendly to minorities and women; tendency to look the other way towards inappropriate conduct of male colleagues towards their female colleagues - not based on meritocracy; favoritism given to the families out of Chicago and does not place high value on global experience, broader thinking - Enables poor behavior, potentially abusive behavior, of senior management towards analyst/associates - utilizes fear to drive subordination - pays below market value of bulge brackets (specific to equity research) - extremely conservative in nature towards everything

2.0
Nov 30, 2017

CFO has destroyed the culture!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work/life balance, comp, location and state of the art building

Cons

The CFO has disrupted the culture in a very negative way. Too much focus on growth and not enough focus on the quality of the services the firm provides. It no longer feels like people are the greatest asset of the firm. Lots of abrupt changes have taken place with no explanation or clear plan communicated. And lots of turnover within upper management.

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William Blair Response
8y
Thank you for the feedback, and the opportunity to discuss these important topics. We’re sorry that you have a negative impression of the recent changes, and wanted to take this opportunity to explain the strategy behind them. First, we agree that the most important things about William Blair are our people and culture. We continually invest in employees, and have launched several new firm initiatives to further enhance our culture and employee experience. We encourage you to reference our Truly Invested strategy to learn more. You mentioned turnover among our upper management. Historically, we’ve had remarkably low turnover among our leaders. This year, we did have some changes in leadership following long, successful careers for several leaders at William Blair. Through our succession planning, these changes ultimately created great opportunities for other team members to elevate their careers. Referring to our focus on growth, it is true that we’re looking ahead and striving to be competitively fit for the future. Change is a central component of growth and improvement, with the quality of service to our clients as the priority. As change occurs, we are committed to communicate with our clients, employees, and the firm. We are working hard to ensure each employee is engaged and empowered. Please reach out to any member of our executive team to continue the dialogue. Your input is valued and would help us communicate even more effectively.
1.0
Apr 12, 2017

Trader

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay compared to market

Cons

Used to be a great place to work; no longer value hard working employees and partners only care about their distributions and the bottom line. Will ride you to the top then take credit for your work and output. CFO is out of touch with employees and has zero respect for the "little people." Company has really declined over the past couple of years. Stay away

Viewing 10 - 12 of 445 Reviews

Glassdoor has 547 William Blair reviews submitted anonymously by William Blair employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if William Blair is right for you.