A Genuine Employee Perspective - Business Analyst Citi Employee Review

## Honest Opinion This review is completely based on my personal experience in the Retail Banking and Wealth Banking teams. Your experience may be different depending on your team and manager. If you're from an engineering or analytics background and you're looking for a place where you can learn, build technical skills, and work in a healthy environment, I would honestly suggest **thinking twice** before joining. For me, it felt like my learning stopped instead of growing. If you're from a commerce background and your dream is simply to work for a global bank, then you might still like it. Just be prepared for a very hierarchical work culture where your experience depends a lot on your manager. ### Why I feel this way * **Too much focus on reviews, too little focus on real work.** It often felt like people cared more about collecting points for year-end performance reviews than actually improving processes or creating meaningful impact. * **Office politics are real.** Senior management often looked more focused on protecting themselves than solving problems. Many times, junior employees ended up taking the pressure while senior people avoided accountability. Building the right connections sometimes felt more important than doing good work. * **Poor planning and unrealistic deadlines.** It was common to receive urgent tasks with very little context and be expected to deliver them by the next day. On top of that, slow laptops and outdated systems made simple tasks take much longer than they should. * **Very limited technical growth.** If you already know tools like Python, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, Git, or modern analytics tools, don't expect to use them much. The work and technology felt behind what most companies are using today. * **A lot of talk about AI, but very little understanding.** AI was discussed almost every day, but many projects felt rushed just to show that something was being done. Instead of learning properly and building good solutions, there was pressure to deliver quickly, which often resulted in unfinished or difficult-to-maintain work. * **Not all managers know how to manage people.** I met some really good people, but I also came across managers who didn't know how to guide or support junior employees. At times, analysts were treated more like resources than professionals. * **The culture can be tiring.** Sometimes it felt like you were judged for small things, like not talking enough during lunch or not being social with senior people. Quiet employees didn't always feel comfortable or included. * **It affected my mental well-being.** The constant pressure, poor planning, and work culture made work stressful. By Sunday evening, I would already start worrying about Monday. That was one of the biggest reasons I decided to leave. ### Final Thoughts Citibank offers good salary, good employee benefits, and the value of having a well-known brand on your resume. Those are genuine positives. But for me, those benefits were not enough to make up for the work culture and the lack of learning. I eventually moved to another company where I have a much better work environment, better technical exposure, and far more opportunities to grow. My advice is simple: don't join just because of the brand name. Talk to people from the exact team you're joining and understand the work culture first. It could save you from making the wrong decision. **Note:** This review is based on my own experience and conversations with colleagues from the Retail Banking and Wealth Banking teams. Other teams at Citibank may have a different culture and provide a different experience. Credit goes to our "star" VP for making this experience memorable. This feedback reflects the experiences of people who chose to leave.