A true love hate relationship with UBS
Pros
The technology of this bank is outdated, between the 1990's to 2000's, and the bank is far from perfect (what company is?), however instead of looking at this from a negative point of view, I saw the positive side of it. The nature of my position and the lack of resources available allowed me to utilize my creativity to the max, which also helped me improve my computer programming and communication skills greatly. The people were nice, mostly open to suggestions, and seemed to appreciate my work for the departments. Of course, the nature of my position was made possible by my boss who was fortunately very open minded. He let me do my job independently with minimal supervision. If I have had anything less, my viewpoints would have been very different and my creativity would have been limited. In my particular department, there was downsizing and this occurs everywhere in every company at some point or another. Thus, I can't put this as a con since this is a part of life and business restructure. Again, I looked at the downsizing as an opportunity for myself and utilized my creativity to the max to help offset the lack of resources through innovation. This is a pro because the company let me be creative, listened to my suggestions, let me execute my decisions, and overall had been very accommodating. I know a lot of people complain about the technology there (and so did I my first few months), but there are some things we can't control. I learned to focus on what I could control, and turned the negatives into major opportunities.
Cons
There are definitely cons to working at UBS. Unfortunately because of these cons, this fact had pushed me into looking for new employment about 1.5 years into the company. I am not one to criticize management or to give my personal opinion about how they should act, mainly because I do not have the full story. But I will say this: Although the lack of resources as I mentioned above allowed me to be creative and work smarter, the lack of resources also affected my personal growth at the company. I had expected to have a small team working for me by the end of the 2nd year, and I still had no support. Think about it, if you are the only maintenance and support technician on site, what happens? You can't leave your position, ever. There would be no way for me to personally grow at this company since any promotion would indicate I would no longer be available to support my original duties. The lack of any salary increases also was off-putting. Most people will say "but no one got a raise", or "you haven't been at the company that long" but we shouldn't think that way. Everyone is different and has different achievements and time frames. Why should I have to be at any company for even 5 years to see a promotion if my work is truly valued? I only look at my own achievements, and if the company is not giving promotions or salary increases throughout the department despite individual contributions, there really isn't much one can do but to either take it, or move on.
