Lack of clear direction, but great benefits - Engineer Discover Employee Review

2.0
Dec 17, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Flexible work from home, handled COVID outstandingly -Generous PTO -Great benefits package -Impressive office campus -Diverse culture

Cons

-ZERO onboarding for new employees There is no guidance on how to setup payroll, benefits, anything. Nor is there a comprehensive list of all perks. I was handed a laptop and shown to a desk, and had to resort to tribal knowledge from co-workers. When this point was brought up to CIO Amir Arooni during a town hall his response was "you should ask to be onboarded". No, you should have these things in place for employees who have zero knowledge of your environment or systems. It shouldn't fall on the neophyte to navigate blindly. -Convoluted work processes Even simple work takes months. Teams are heavily siloed, and internal efforts are always prioritized to external. Cooperation is not the norm. -High pressure to deliver constantly You have to substantiate your worth every single sprint. And given the time it takes to get significant work done this is stressful. Clear goals and planning from the top does not filter down properly to the people turning the cranks, and often time is wasted on threads that are ultimately abandoned.

Explore other reviews about Discover

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

One of the most significant advantages of interning at Discover is the opportunity to work with massive, high-stakes financial datasets within a highly collaborative and mentorship-driven culture. Because the company manages millions of consumer accounts, you gain direct experience in how data-driven decisions impact risk management, credit modeling, and fraud detection in real time. The environment is known for being supportive of early-career professionals, offering structured learning paths and exposure to modern cloud-native infrastructures like AWS. Furthermore, the company’s strong focus on work-life balance and a clear pipeline for converting interns to full-time roles makes it an excellent "foot in the door" for anyone looking to build a career in fintech.

Cons

On the other hand, the primary drawback often stems from the inherent bureaucracy and heavy regulation of the banking industry, which can lead to slower project lifecycles and "red tape." You may find that a significant portion of your time is spent on repetitive data cleaning and maintaining legacy reporting systems rather than building the cutting-edge predictive models you might expect. Additionally, because Discover is a massive organization, your scope of work can sometimes feel siloed, making it difficult to see the end-to-end impact of your analysis across different departments. Finally, the current landscape of the industry means that internal shifts or large-scale corporate restructuring can occasionally lead to uncertainty regarding team directions or long-term project stability.

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