Great for self-starters, but very political.
Pros
Citigroup is a great place to work if you're a self-starter who can manage your own career effectively. You will be given opportunities to advance and grow, and people are generally very helpful and friendly, even if they don't know you/don't work for you. The reasons for this are two-fold: 1- the 360 reviews Citi conducts-- employees can and do review managers and those who are higher in the corporate structure than they are, and those reviews do count. The MDs are approachable and very willing to spare their time, if they have it. 2- Because Citi is so fluid in terms of who does what job, there's constant reorganization going on and you may suddenly find that the person whose phone call you ignored last month is now your boss! So it pays to be helpful and friendly.
Cons
Very political. You can easily advance without doing a lot of hard work if you cozy up to the right people. This is by no means typical of most employees, but I've seen it in action and it's frustrating to those of us who work hard, put in long hours, and sacrifice in other ways to keep our careers on track. I also found that some managers can be less than respectful of their employees. I had one manager who would yell at me as if I was a child. Sure, there are rules against this and you can take it up with HR... if you want to kiss your career goodbye. Further, there's not a lot of flexibility if you're sick or if you need to take time off. I asked my manager for a couple of days off since my family was coming in from out of the country and she said No. No reason, just no.
