Bank of America

"Even though some of the top Tech Execs are women, Technology & Operations is predominantly a male organization. Middle managers are judged on their ability to deliver on time and on budget, not on their commitment to diversity. Therefore, they rely on the "old boys" network to get a "body" into an open position as fast as possible. My team has over 25 Senior VP's, and only 1 of those is female. Women who advance to Exec levels appear to have made the choice to dedicate themselves to a career (I heard someone refer to an Exec by saying, "Bank of America is her religion") as opposed to women lower in the Org who appear to attempt a balance of work and family."

"Face time and immense politics - typical of a Bank but unusually so."

"There are corporate policies and initiatives focused on developing women and supporting balanced life for employees."

"I've worked here for 10+ years. There are a lot of successful women who work in my area - including myself to a certain extent. However, there is a ceiling...and only those women with strong male sponsors break thru the ceiling. Cute, young, sassy women have no problem establishing that strong sponsorship but one little misstep seems to be detrimental. Re-orgs are fast and furious - you can be on top of your game one week and the next week you'll be reporting to a peer. I call it the 6-month humiliation factor....about every 6-months your situation will change and you have to suffer the humiliation of some sort of setback. Lay-offs are fast and furious too. A favorite co-worker will be working on your project one day and the next day they just disappear. No one talks about people disappearing. There is a constant fear of being laid off - and it causes this dynamic, I call it the 'looky-looky' dynamic. This is where everyone is walking all over everyone else to prove their worth. "looky-looky what I did - I'm better than Joey and Janey". Introverts have a hard time here. You have to play into the "looky-looky" or you just aren't noticed. Hard work, good work don't mean much - it's all about the politics. So why do I stay? Benefits and flexibility. But that is changing. Bank is eliminating the flexible My Work program and calling everyone back into the office (but there is no real estate or parking available...but that doesn't seem to matter). Bank is also following every other large corporation in scaling back on benefits. 4 weeks of vacation plus 10 bank holidays and 10 'sick' days is still wonderful....I look for it to go away soon too!"

"There are more women then men working for Bank of America"