Pros
If you're interested in experiencing the culture behind the largest bankruptcy of all time then Neuberger Berman is for you. The backstory of accomplishments and innovations prior to the 2002 acquisition by Lehman Brothers is practically a fairytale. That company culture was murdered and a Lehman Brothers escape pod has been running around in a disguise made out of the carcass.
Cons
Chief Administrative Officer was originally an attorney at Lehman Brothers and speaks fondly at company events of having worked on ABS products. Those were the securities that obliterated the last empire. Might explain some stuff, because NB does not seem sustainable. It’s like a bad caricature of an investment firm. Career trajectories are detached from performance. People get unqualified buddies hired, then collect bonuses for recruiting them. Many supervisors aim to keep operations non-transparent and undocumented to avoid accountability while being intentionally ineffective to justify increasing the number of people they manage. This isn't speculation. Senior staff keep sharing this information with me as unsolicited career advice. Middle managers sabotaging the operations of entire teams is totally normalized and excused. I’m aware of this happening at least 6 times in the last 5 years. Women usually need to be attractive, overqualified, and not respond when overtly humiliated, treated like idiots, and kept out of the loop. There have been situations amplified by HR and management that are far more severe than industry norms. Exceptional employees also risk attempts at being intentionally harassed out of their jobs for threatening the status quo. NB looks like a ticking controversy timebomb. Audits seem intentionally compromised. HR enables dysfunction like it’s their primary purpose. As I’ve become more familiar with different parts of the company, the situation has only seemed worse and worse. Once new trends have become widespread in the industry, NB usually will acquire smaller firms with already established capabilities or make equivalent high-profile hires. You will never be able to transfer to a better/more appropriate role. The only exception is if you dedicate yourself to backwards office politics, and it’s thought that you’d be a more valuable sycophant doing something else. You will not grow here. If you sincerely take pride in your work, NB will destroy you.
