Pros
Great People. I worked for a group where the people mutually respected each other. We would organize group events (although work sometimes got in the way of attending these events) for people and one of the administrative assistants remembered every analyst's and associate's birthday. If you worked hard, and did not complain about the work, people regarded you well and gave you projects that you would be interested in. Compensation was not bad as well. Rides home after 9pm, free meals, reimbursements on telephone bills, free Monday lunches. Overall, I really liked the people in my group. The compensation was another benefit
Cons
I feel that employee morale at Deutsche Bank has gotten to be pretty low. The perception, even among employees has been that Deutsche Bank has not performed as badly as its competitors throughout the credit crisis. This view was badly shaken with the mass lay-offs that have been occurring in recent months. Some of the blame lies with senior management who have not been forthcoming about communicating the extent of the problems within investment banking and about addressing the layoffs. In my group for example, when people were laid off, it almost seemed as if nothing happened. People even within the group refused to talk about what was going on and this just contributed towards the lack of communication that already existed. The hours in investment banking were also a killer. 100+ hour weeks were not uncommon. Furthermore, my group was plagued with the problem of "face-timing". Even if you had no work, you had to show that you were working at least until 11pm each night just to avoid getting ridiculous staffings for projects that some MD cooked up. The learning experience was not as great as I hoped it would be. People simply working on endless pitches with really interesting deals few and far between.