Formerly a standout company, now dragged down by incompetence - Anonymous employee Visa Inc. Employee Review

2.0
19 Dec 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most of the "pros" I can think of are in the past. But Visa may still be an OK company for young male Indians who want to pad their resume. (Indian women are talked over in meetings.)

Cons

The company is generally sliding downhill rapidly. The few innovations come from copying or buying outside. Management, at least in IT, all the way to the IT top, seem to be reading from their Indian-IT school textbooks To sum this up "Look busy and change the plans frequently if rapid results are not forthcoming." Everyone from Director and higher seems to be trying to implement their own plan, I suppose for later resume building. Teamwork is restricted to just a very few teams with decent managers (less than 5% of teams). Management between teams is fully territorial, with people believing that their way is the only way and never cooperating as this would be seen as backing down from their own plans. The morale and culture are the worst I've experienced. Top IT guy seems to believe his job is cheerleading, so there are 4-6 rah-rah meetings every month called "All-Hands". Hardly anyone even goes to these anymore, they have to send email to please sit up in the front for the cameras. These meetings always start 10-20 minutes late. (I mention these details not as the worst of the environment, but just as small examples to show how far the poor culture has seeped.) There are at least 3, and often 10 or more, layers of project planners for each project. Of course, all but two of these (the top layer and the bottom layer) are just playing the telephone game and regurgitating what they heard from below. Often the actual source of the information is not allowed at the meeting that reports it (to protect the middle manager jobs). So almost all meetings end up a waste of time, where people have to "take things offline" to go figure out the actual source and get the information directly. Generally speaking the VP and SVP layers are the worst of the non-value-adding staff. They don't want any decision made by others, so all meetings are hamstrung until the VP or SVP shows up to make a call. These VP's spend their days running from meeting to meeting pointing out the obvious. Since they are heavily overbooked (everyone needs them to move things forward, no delegation) they miss many meetings completely. This is accepted and implicitly excused as "they are so busy". Top execs rely on the annual HR survey for proof of the wonderful job they are doing. Everyone is pressured to complete the survey. Year after year the same areas are identified as poor performing areas -- but the next year and the year after that it is the same. Presentation of the results (at another All-Hands of course) is always marketing speak telling everyone how serious they are about changing these results. Now it appears VIsa is putting pressure on at least a couple VP's to come to Glassdoor and promise better for the future. Deja-vu. At least it appears a couple VP's are reading these comments.

Explore other reviews about Visa Inc.

5.0
24 Apr 2026
Anonymous intern
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good work life balance and supportive team

Cons

Bad locations for headquarters - in Austin

2.0
25 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent work-life balance, strong 401(k) match, and generally good benefits. There are smart, hardworking people across the company from all walks of life, and the Visa name still carries weight on a resume.

Cons

The work-life balance comes with a tradeoff: innovation moves at a glacial pace. In my experience, Visa was a highly political organization where visibility and relationships often mattered more than performance. Career growth felt slow, especially for high-performing mid-career employees looking to expand their scope or take ownership. There was constant organizational churn. In two years, I had three managers and made it through multiple reorgs, but our entire team lived in constant fear of ongoing layoffs. Layoffs and restructuring felt far more common than leadership acknowledged, which created a disconnect between company messaging and employee reality. The lack of trust for executive leadership is readily apparent across all internal channels. My org was not particularly valued, compensation lagged the market, and the return-to-office rollout was/continues to be handled poorly and rigidly. If you're looking for stability, predictable work, and reasonable hours, Visa can be a good fit. If you're a high performer looking for speed, creativity, ownership, and growth, there are better places to spend your time (and your paycheck will probably be higher).

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