American Express reviews

4.1

81% would recommend to a friend

(18,598 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 18,598 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 Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
3.0
Feb 7, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work life balance Work from home most Fridays Free access to city museums/gardens

Cons

They say that people like to hire those who look like them, and the same can be said about the hiring process at this company. At some historic breakthrough it was sure to be celebrated that women nearly dominate leadership at American Express. Yay for us women holistically, but from the inside perspective it's not as diverse as one would think. Fair warning, this will be very direct. White women at this company simply love hiring other white women. Looking at some of the micro-organizations here, it's as if they are arming themselves against diversity in thought. Make no mistake, there are heaps of ethnic backgrounds at Amex, but the majority will be found in the bottom half. To use myself as an example, I've been honored with the highest year-end rating possible, have the support and confidence of layers of senior leadership and I've been up for a promotion for nearly 9 months. I've been on 8 total interviews in the past year, studied rigorously for each, and have been succeeded by a white woman each time (I wish this was an exaggeration.) Not to mention that each of these jobs were interviewed exclusively by white women. It's more than a coincidence. I won't hold this singular observation accountable for my personal experience, but I would urge the leadership of this company to expand their ideals about the eligibility, skill, and intellect of those who aren't a married or engaged young white woman. Much of the stellar and hopeful Amex talent end up accepting external opportunities.

2.0
Sep 22, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits. Great pay. Exceptional facilities in the office. Opportunity to grow within the company. Most of management are friendly.

Cons

The past couple years they have become extremely sales driven to the point of being unproductive. They push you to sell card products and if you don't meet their completely unreasonable sales requirement they will write you up for it. Incentive is mostly based on customer surveys. If you receive a bad survey you could lose a portion/all of your incentive that you worked hard for. Even if you received the survey by error and it clearly wasn't intended for you, they won't do anything about it and you will lose and incentive because of their error. They penalize you for taking a bathroom break even if you have a medical condition and provide them with a doctors note. Endless fighting with other departments within the company because of lazy reps who don't want to be handling a call they should be handling.

2.0
Aug 23, 2017

Soul Crushing

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big company, well-recognized brand, rich history, nice downtown NYC office and convenient location, pay is good but not great. Weekends off. Lots of people "work" from home on Fridays.

Cons

Game of Thrones level politics, complete with factions, cliques, alliances. It's the worst at the VP level - those trying to make it, those trying to keep it. It's a huge distraction to the people who are simply trying to do a good job, work smart, improve our products, and do what's right for the customers.

Viewing 73 - 75 of 18,598 Reviews

Glassdoor has 21,952 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.