Pathway Capital Management Reviews

(1) Culture: the company culture can be a bit weird. In general, the firm takes a very conservative approach with all things and can be very slow to adapt or change (which is something that can be difficult for today's younger professionals). The structure of the organization is somewhat hierarchical and there is a general opaqueness to everything (you're more likely to hear about a termination or new policy through the grapevine than through a memo). (2) Lack of Remote Access at the Analyst Level: this is a true oddity in the financial services industry. At first, this is pitched as a positive: you don't have to worry about work once you leave the office. The problem with it is that it can be very difficult to leave the office if you're saddled with lots of work (as is often the case), so you're often hopelessly stuck spending many hours in the office into the night. (3) Compensation on an Relative Basis: compared to other areas of the financial services industry (e.g., portfolio management, investment banking, direct private equity, etc.) compensation is relatively low, both in terms of salary and bonus (even if adjusted for on a $ per hour basis). Even for a PE fund of funds, the firm's total compensation at the analyst level is below average. (4) Working with Many Different Partners/Teams Can Be Frustrating: because different partners have different expectations, there's not a standard way of approaching the same problems if their posed by two different senior professionals.

(1) Inconsistent Company Communication One of the most common things you’ll hear at Pathway is to overcommunicate, however, that expectation only applies one way. Pathway has a very opaque and almost secretive way of operating, and people are only told what they need to know when the person above them feels like it’s time for them to know. Pathway is the only company I’ve ever worked for where the company intentionally segregates lines of communication and it really doesn’t make any sense or add any value. Even though analysts are the engine behind all the deliverables, they’re consistently and intentionally excluded from calls, meetings, and emails from clients and General Partners and are never really included in the loop until the absolute last minute. Your experience here is only as good as the mid-level you work with, which can vary widely. (2) Manager Quality Inconsistency Over time, you’ll also notice there’s a blatant disregard for emotional intelligence and communication skills to get promoted here. Granted, there are some great mangers here, but there are also some really terrible ones as well. Pathway is aware of this, but the company definitely grants some leeway to anyone associate-level and above. Moreover, there’s a clique within the company that almost act as culture enforcers and anyone not part of this club or that isn’t 100% dunking their head in the kool-aid are deemed “not a Pathway fit” by this pool of people. This group is very selective, and will go out of their way to smear you and talk about you to other people at the office. A perfect example of this is the Glassdoor review on 2/21/20. Notice how in the review they emphasize “culture” and “complaints” and end the review with “these don’t typically make it very long”. This doesn’t sound like an analyst wrote this since all the analysts got along fairly well and we all talk to each other. Importantly, this review also went up about a week after an analyst got fired, and in my opinion, it sounds like management wrote it as a warning to the rest of the analysts, verified by the fact the review says “no one is indispensable at the entry level”. Do you really think an analyst would write a review that basically says “feel free to fire more of us since we’re not that important”, and then give the company a 5-star review? No analyst would give the company 5 stars, especially given the unpleasant experiences we’ve had with a number of the mid-levels/partners here. (3) Opaque and Informal Review Process The review process at Pathway is definitely unique from a multiple of facets. Pathway’s client teams and investment teams are not the ones that give your review, meaning that no one you work with actually gives you the feedback. Instead, the reviews are given by partners/principals/VPs who you likely have never worked with and who rely exclusively on the feedback they’ve been given from everyone that worked with you during the time period. This inherently presents a problem given none of the reviewers really understand the impact of your contributions, the full story behind performance, and what it’s like to work with you. There’s no tangible metrics that they use or provide, and rarely are they able to provide any specifics without scrolling through their notes, and more often than not, end up using a general blanket statement to try and cover themselves. Even worse is none of the partners are in agreement as to expectations for performance, which means one partner might think you’re stepping out of your lane while another will think you’re showing initiative and are ready for the next level. Reviews seem like they already have an opinion of how you did before reading any of the feedback and they selectively choose the feedback to justify their opinion. (4) No Public Security Trading Unlike almost any other financial services firm, Pathway restricts 100% of stock trading, meaning you can’t buy or sell any publicly traded shares (ETFs and mutual funds are ok) while working here. They recently severely limited crypto trading as well. For some reason, Pathway takes the nuclear option when it comes to publicly traded investments. This is obviously a significant opportunity cost, and one which I don’t believe the company fairly compensates for. Also, even though Pathway is a fund of funds, you won’t get any access to invest alongside any of those investments either, which again is a notable oddity.