GMO Reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(147 total reviews)

Scott Hayward

82% approve of CEO

59% positive business outlook

GMO has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 147 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The GMO 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

147 reviews
1.0
5 May 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most of the people I got to work with were pretty nice.

Cons

Management was very Mickey Mouse. There was a lot of backstabbing between groups. IT had it's agenda. The various business units had their own agenda. There wasn't a lot of straight talk, just games that management liked to play. The money was terrible from a financial services perspective. I wished that I had never joined that firm.

3.0
1 May 2014

Great place to get experience, but no long-term career prospects

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People are very bright and efficient; there is an easy way about people and I felt upper management in my division was very approachable and friendly. Great vacation and medical benefits. Great exposure to high-level dealings that you wouldn't get in other companies; very open door and "if you want to give it a try, go for it!" attitude towards new projects. If you're interested in something, they will let you pursue it.

Cons

- entire company is paid as if every employee was a trader (low base, high bonus) which leaves them very uncompetetive for careers traditionally not paid this way (IT, accounting, etc) - no annual CPI salary increases, but also very limited opportunities for promotions/raises so... you can basically work there for a max of 3 or 4 years if you don't get a promotion. Then you have to leave so you can keep pace with your bills every month. -If you're promised a 40% bonus, know that you're only getting about 20%. Half of your bonus is withheld for manadatory retirement savings - there is no 401k, so this is essentially the retirement plan there, just be aware when you're quoted a high bonus that it's not truly all a "bonus." - They seem to have a company culture of running "lean". They seem to purposefully understaff and plan only enough employees for "normal times" so that during busy times everyone is fraying and falling apart at the seams. I get that lower overhead keeps client fees down, but it's fairly simple to work that a bit farther and realize that putting out late reports with material weaknesses due to chronic turnover, understaffing, and lack of work-life balance isn't going to get you ahead with clients in the end. They have very short-sighted goals as a fiduciary, it's odd. - The have a highly centralized power structure and do not let divisions make any autonomous decisions. It's limiting and crippling to divisions whose functions and needs are outside of the norm. It gives the impression of a lack of trust of divisional leadership, which is a shame considering the talented people they employ at those levels.

3.0
29 Mar 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The best part of working at GMO are the people. Everyone is very bright and pleasant, modern technologies, agile SDLC, flexible work hours, working from home possible, good balance of work vs. life. Convenient downtown location. Medical insurance.

Cons

Long interview process. Low base compensation. Bonus risky and at the whim of GMO. Cubes are low walls in the IT department. No vacation policy, at discretion of manager. Communication is poor from management to us workers. Rumors spread yet no one talks directly about problems. The IT staff is overhead and is treated as an expense, not as a valued resource.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 147 Reviews

Glassdoor has 221 GMO reviews submitted anonymously by GMO employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if GMO is right for you.