Pros
When I worked hard and made extra efforts I was compensated for it (bonuses, raises)...but never promoted. It's the luck of the draw though - depending on who your direct managers & supervisors are (see Cons below).
Cons
Well the main con is that they're laying off like crazy right now and probably won't be in Buffalo past 2013. They got rid of 1500-2000 with the Capital One sale (this includes other sites around the country). And in the past two weeks about 200-500 more HSBC Buffalo employees have been laid off. I wouldn't be surprised if hundreds if not thousands more will be laid off by the end of this year due to the sale of the branches to First Niagara last weekend. On to other cons...HSBC likes to move uneducated management around within the company - managers from one dept to another who have no clue about their new dept. and also promote people who have no college and/or don't have enough experience of the job. Why do they do this? Because then they don't have to pay what the job is worth, because that would require hiring someone with a degree and/or previous management experience in that field who would require a lot more money. When management doesn't have a clue about the job, it trickles down and makes everyone's lives miserable. (see 'Advice to Management' for a continuation of this). This is Buffalo I'm talking about, maybe it's different in NYC...