American Express reviews

4.1

81% would recommend to a friend

(18,611 total reviews)
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Stephen J Squeri

89% approve of CEO

79% positive business outlook

American Express has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 18,611 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The American Express employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financeiro industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
4.0
Jan 6, 2009
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

A complex organization presents many opportunties and different directions you can take your career. You need to be willing to take initiative to map out and cut your own path. Leaders are expected to have career path conversations with direct reports, and help identify and advocate for your "next likely positions". In turn, direct reports are expected to think about their trajectory and bring forth a point-of-view on their 3-5-etc-year plan. Lastly, the people here are seasoned, bright, and friendly, and top leaders are world leaders in their respective spaces.

Cons

A complex organization presents an overly consensus-driven and and fairly politically-charged culture. You need to be able to diplomatically state your opinion without having others feel as is you've stepped on their toes or squashed their idea. "Constructive criticism", "healthy debate", "direct feedback" are NOT phrases I would use to describe the Blue Box culture. Rather, "yes-based" relationships with little to no conflict confrontation are the norm. I think innovation suffers because of this.

4.0
Jan 5, 2009
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

American Express has a good work life balance program. It is very helpful if you have children.

Cons

The company doesn't understand the impact of outsourcing the knowledge of their business. There are very few SME in technologies due to the outsourcing. How dumb is that. ?

4.0
Dec 29, 2008
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

High work standards, respect for people, work like balance and benefits package. There are also a lot of training opportunities and, if you're smart enough to learn who to connect with, plenty of opportunities for growth. At Amex you have the chance to work with top notch professionals and all sorts of experts, thus learning from the best. Teamwork is a guiding principle and you can always count on people to help you out. If you prove yourself capable and trustworthy you receive lots of autonomy to do your job. Amex is quick to recognize a job well done (sometimes too quick!).

Cons

Base pay at Amex is really poor and the internal mechanisms to assess equity are outdated and way too slow. Having good benefits is just one thing that makes a great place to work great. Amex's compensation philosophy is to pay below the market and compensate with benefits. But to be truly effective the benefits package lacks flexibility (childcare allowances are only useful if you have a child). Therefore, the company should update it's salary position, become more competitive as far as base pay goes, and re think its benefits package to make it more suitable to different employee populations.

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Glassdoor has 21,965 American Express reviews submitted anonymously by American Express employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if American Express is right for you.