relationship banker

customer service representative

software engineer

vice president

relationship manager

Bank of America

 Bank of America will pay for you to go to Maryland or North Carolina for training.  They will book you in a 5-star hotel and will provide you with free meals.  They will even pay you per diem every day. In other words, you get free meals and per diem.  The training lasts about 5-7 days. The trainers claim that Bank of America has the Best Training Program in the WORLD.   In my opinion, it is below-average training.  I asked other FSA what they think about the training and they said it was below average or average.

Most people come out of training and cannot remember what the training was about.  If you are a new FSA but worked in the bank of America as a relationship banker or held other positions in the Bank of America then you have an advantage.  Furthermore, you may succeed as FSA because of that.  But if you are a new FSA and never worked for Bank of America then I wish you good luck. It is a lot of work and pressure on the job.  In other words, this is a high-pressure sales job. 

Most people cannot remember what the training was about.  Every 2 hours or so there is a 20-30-minute break.   I think the trainers want to finish their duties as soon as they can because they only have 6-7 days to do it  Most people do not learn by just looking.  Most people learn by doing.  But trainers are more concerned with the visual process but not actual hands-on. Remember they have to go over so much stuff so hands-on experience takes time.  Therefore, the visual process is faster.   I think that is why most people are confused.   The FSA computer crashes from time to time.  You need to set up your own computer so you need to know how to read the directions and follow instructions in the manual.  I was told by the management staff that You will get your new computer by mail and then you have to set up your desk and other equipment and printer and computer (that is not what I was told during the interview).  You need to follow the direction and if you need help then you can call one of your co-workers for help.  If they cannot help you, then you just have to learn how to set up your computer desk and wire and printers.   So, if you are not able to set up your computer then your manager will call a contractor to come to the bank and that contactor may take 7-10 days.  So you cannot help customers until this contractor comes and set up your computer.   Then you may get a call or calls from your managers that you are not performing because you have not done anything for the bank.  You can call the help desk, but they will tell you to deal with the contractor, and the help desk cannot help FSA regarding setting your computers, wires, and equipment. You need to be technical.  You do not need a degree in computer. But you need to be technical to do this job.  In other words, if you are not good with computers, then this job is not for you. So after you have set up your computer and other stuff then you may want to call the Help desk if there are issues with your computer. When you call the help desk.  it will take you at least an hour and maybe 2 hours. So your time is wasted.  2 hours is a long time for the help desk. It depends on who you get.  Some employees at the help desk center will help you but some will not.  I am not sure why some do and some do not.  Some are very helpful and some are not. My advice to you is when you call the help desk and the employee seems like he or she is not knowledgeable and refuses to help you. Then, you just hang up the phone and call the help desk right away again and hope to get someone else who will help you.  That is what I did !!

You will need to go over about 4500 slides regarding training. Do you think you will remember 4500 slides?  Most people do not.  So, that is why most people fail.  So, let say you know the investment and you are licensed but you need to know about computers, and you need to know how to navigate. If you call the help desk or dedicated team, then they will refer you to your Manager.  The manager is always busy. So, managers will email you a bunch of outdated slides. That is not the most efficient way of learning.  It would be best if it was one on one training but you need to learn by slides and depend on your co-workers' sometimes. 

So, your manager will come to check on you and see how you are performing.  You can let your manager know that you are not familiar on ow how to navigate the system. But your manager wants to know if you are opening investment accounts and opening bank products. The managers claim that you went over 4500 slides and  Bank of America has your initials and signatures. Therefore, you must know what you are doing. If you refuse to sign and initial that you went over all of these slides, then you may not have a job. 

Okay, if you do not perform, then the manager will threaten your job indirectly.   They will not tell you directly that you will get fired. They call you every 2 or 3 days. Managers will speak to you in a loud voice over the phone or in person.  They will put you down and say how bad you are performing.  Then, they will threaten you by saying that you are not following bank guidance and policy and procedure.  In other words, if you do not perform, then managers are concentrated on compliance issues ( that is what I was told by another manager that used to work there) So, they will wait and see when you will make compliance mistakes.  If you do make mistakes, then they will say something like this "you have series 7 and 66 and 65 licenses. We do not want anything to happen to those licenses.   DO WE!!! "  My manager stated to me the above info.  He accused me of violating compliance and ethics but it was not true.  Then, he said that we want to see your license in good standing and want nothing to happens to your licenses. Then, he said it is your license and not mine.  

"So, we do not want to fire you. But we are concern about your licenses and compliance issues."  If you perform well, then they do not focus on compliance. If you perform badly, then they may go after compliance and even will go as far as making things up.  Seriously,  they will make things up and make false accusations. 

The bottom line - you studied for your licenses.  If you do not perform. then your license can be at risk. Do you want that? The good news is that if you perform well then you should be good. 

FSA stands for Financial Solution Advisor


A typical day at work would constitute the morning you and your team have to open the bank, start taking care of customer problems or opening accounts, and then wait in great suspense for the clock tick towards closing time. But it really depends on which town you get placed in - there'll be multicultural towns, rich-well-to-do white suburbs, blue-collar neighborhoods with the occasional trailer park trash or low-income minority neighborhoods, and the ghetto (usually in an urban area). I have been to all of them - each have their pros and cons; each have very different customer bases; and each vary in the pace of work. 

What I've learned is that I have to push product in order to meet my sales goal. They don't want to be another Wells Fargo so they always emphasize NOT TO PUSH PRODUCT but to ALWAYS meet your sales goal. Makes a lot of sense. Just seems like upper management does not want to take any ownership or responsibility of what their employees do in response to this contradiction. 99% of the time it's all about the bottom line with maybe 1% devoted to prevent terrorist financing. In addition, if you have ever worked a customer service job, this one will be the one that will traumatize your nuts because get ready to be abused. There will be certain situations you'll find yourself in where the customer is shouting like an ape because you couldnt give a fee refund or charged $5 to replace their debit card. If you work at a bank in the ghetto, be careful of some of the residents - I was in one situation where a customer, who was on cocaine at the time, became increasingly belligerent towards me. How i knew it was cocaine is when his jumping caused a small baggie with a little bit of white powdery residue to fall out of his jacket pocket. Unbelievable.
The bank is a corporate behemoth that also has the resources to watch you and monitor you like Big Brother. So be careful of what you do on the computer (or what you say at work).  

Management can vary depending on who is your manager. Personal Bankers or relationship managers have a boss known as an MSM, or Market Sales Manager - they're the ones who step on your nuts if you dont meet your monthly/quarterly sales goal. The bank manager and the tellers have a different superior called an OMM,Operations market manager, who oversee the operations of the bank and also step on your nuts if there's let's say a shortage of cash in the vault at the end of the day. The MSM and OMM do not come that often to visit as they have other banks to manage. It's important that your manager likes you - some managers can be toxic in general. If they see you as weak, they'll take advantage of that and abuse you. Note that only a small percentage of managers are like this. The bank manager is also someone you want to be on good terms with or they will write you up and give your MSM/OMM one more reason to come stop by the bank next week and give you a smackdown. 

The hardest part of the job is making your sales goal. Honestly, some banks aren't as "fast" as others. Depending on which town you're in, once again, the population density and income per capita are what affect your numbers. Sure you can be a smooth talker but that's already a part of the job requirement. Some banks, you don't need to do anything and the customers just come to you to open accounts, credit cards, mortgages, etc... Some banks, you have to bother the customer on the teller line and try and convince them to sit down with you so you can open an account. Bank of America is huge on credit cards and they want you to sell it like hot potato. The only problem is, our current macroeconomic environment cannot meet such high expectations the Bank is forecasting. Many customers I've met already have at least 5 credit cards - it's only reasonable for them to have a 6th. 
Banks in urban areas tend to be better as traffic is constant in general. Banks in the ghetto areas also are busy but they bring lower quality accounts (accounts with the minimum opening balance) and 95% rejection rates on credit card applications. The reason why is because 1. these ghetto people live paycheck to paycheck (low income) 2. they usually rent and don't possess any kind of property (lack of capital) and 3. the surrounding area they reside in almost always has some sort of failing/dilapadated education system (lack of socioeconomic mobility). The other hard part of the job is something i mentioned already - dealing with crazy customers. They come in all shapes and sizes - the turbulent soccer mom, the unbearable elderly, the impatient minority, the rude yuppy, the elitist rich- jesus christ the list can go on. Some of these people will make you want to get down on your knees and pray for a nuclear apocalypse. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to laugh and talk with your coworkers. Honestly, most of the people I met at Bank of America are wonderful people (with a few exceptions here and there). There's a lot of things about this job you will dislike but hope that your coworkers (or superiors) won't be one of them. All of them come from different backgrounds and many of them tend to be non-Caucasian minorities. Being able to speak a language is important and contributes as cultural capital and value to the bank. So if there's someone who's from a similar culture as you, it's nice to be able to maintain that cultural connection. But even if you're not, most of the time you and your coworkers are regular people, who are just supporting their families, enjoying conversation here and there when traffic gets slow.

You’ll know right away if this is the type of place for you. It wasn’t for me. I tried to stick it out. It’s obviously a very well-known bank. However, the Training Was honestly poor. I worked as a call center representative and throughout my training not one single call was taken by the instructor. You learn a computer system through a presentation by someone who doesn’t even work in customer service. Once you’re done with training, you move into nesting, And that’s when it all starts to really go downhill your numbers starts to become what Define. Of course your managers wanna seem supportive, but it’s Their job when you’re on top you’re their favorite when you’re on the bottom you essentially need to do better or you’re gonna fail and be fired. 360 coaching they like to call it in Scranton. Which is a nice way to say that they’re open to suggestions, But they’re not the coaching are rhetorical you do what they say nothing more nothing less. Do not give 100% because if you do, they’ll just wanna understand why you didn’t give 150% and what can you do to get to 150% but once you do that you better figure out how to get to 200%. They want overachievers consistency and that can do corporate attitude, which is typical. But the emphasis they put on you To perform well causes immense mental anguish, leading to anxiety, and ultimately burn out. Constantly listening, constantly watching and if you need help, essentially they want you to do it and figure it out yourself. “Use your resources” they’d say. Which, of course I tried, but when you have numerous people screaming in your ear, cursing you out degrading you not only do you feel less than helpless, but after the repeated verbal abuse that you go through day after day, it becomes demoralizing. We’re all days bad? No, there were actually some pretty good days and sometimes people are nice but the problem is you can’t be nice back. You need to speak under five minutes. Can’t have them on hold for more than two. And even though the customer to an extent is always right, the bank or the brokerage always has final say. When it comes to complains everything needs to be filed and documented all within that timeframe of that call and if you didn’t finish in time, and you have to take yourself out of the queue in order to finish the documentation, they want to understand why it couldn’t be done in a timely fashion. They’re very peculiar and they want things done a certain way however we all don’t work as one moving part. Moving up, that’s not gonna happen unless you’re what most people would refer to as a favorite. They give you two 15 breaks and a 30 minute lunch: Honestly, they go by so fast you blink in your back on the computer and God help you if you have to use the bathroom. If you’re someone with any type of health issues, do not work here whether you have FMLA or not it’s a relevant if you miss a day or call your manager to call you not once not twice not even three times up to four times or more to understand why you’re not in and if there’s anyway that you can “leverage your time” To help support your team. Bank Of America Has gotten two big For its bridges And it truly loses the customer in the process there are times where you just feel completely helpless because you know in your heart that the other person on the phone is right and there is simply nothing that you can do. Some people can thrive in this type of environment. I tried. I was there for well over a year, almost 2, and it seriously almost took me out. I understand that most jobs are supervised, but where I worked, they took it to a next level. The recognition you receive is nothing. They’ll supply you with food sometimes and maybe you’ll get a nice little virtual card saying you did a good job, but that’s about it and you do something wrong. You don’t hear the end of it. Most of the leaders are condescending, and I truly believe they get that Napoleon complex where they like to be in control of another person. The hold times are ridiculous You could have someone on the line that just got their entire bank account completely drained and you’ll be on hold with fraud for over an hour and a half getting yelled at because of the time bombarded with the constant dinging of Skype Also, you have to check in with them every two minutes, which gets annoying after a while. The customer will out right say You do not have to check in and regardless you do. You have to follow the script to an exact Not to mention that the customers get a survey and even if you try your best if they give you a bad one again, that’s your downfall. Sometimes your managers will attempt to dispute it, but that’s only if they’re in agreement that you did nothing wrong and essentially that they liked your call otherwise that number will stay and that will define you until you can build yourself back up again. I wanted A change and the opportunity to explore a different career pathway, but this just wasn’t it for me and I just overall had a very negative experience. I’m not saying that it will be like that for you, but I wanted to leave an honest review about what I endured throughout my employment. If you find yourself here and for one second that little voice in your head tells you something is not right I employer you please just leave if I would’ve listened to myself the first time I would’ve saved myself a lot of grief. And on the other side of the coin If you’re working there or if you just start and it’s the place for you, I wish you all the best of luck. 

Bank of America Corporation, a holding company, provides banking and non banking financial services and products in the United States and internationally. It primarily operates in three segments: Global Consumer and Small Business Banking (GCSBB), Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB), and Global Wealth and Investment Management (GWIM), Mutual Funds (IRA). The GCSBB segment offers credit cards, and co-branded and affinity card products; processing services for merchant card receipts; mortgage products and services; and consumer deposit and debit products, including savings accounts, certificates of deposits, individual retirement accounts, checking accounts, debit cards, and business checking options. 

Responsibilities
QA Test Lead
•	As Test Lead, create Test Plans for multiple projects viz., Consumer Platform Integration, Rewards Integration, Common Authentication, Bill Payer Integration all .NET applications.
•	Created Test Cases for IRA (Mutual Funds) application that caters to Self Directed Investors and Full Serviced Investors.
•	Updated existing QTP automation scripts to accommodate the changes in online experience for customers. Created various data sets and used it for parameterization.
•	Optimized QTP scripts for Regression testing of the application with various data sources and data types.
•	Platform integration project - wrote test plans for Account Overview, Account Activity, Pay Bills, Customer Service and Account Services sections for both Transparent and Non-Transparent credit card holders.
•	Rewards integration Project – wrote test plans for Cash for points, Transfer points, History, Overview sections accounting for different scenarios based on whether customer was Consumer Finance or Gold Option.
•	Common Auth Project – created logins confirming to BoA standards, MBNA standards, and authentication of logins. Created scenarios for resetting of login names for collision/matching ids.
•	Extensive use of MBNA IS the mainframe that hosts all the information pertaining to the account holders. Used for checking and updating information for comparison between front end and backend systems.
•	Expert at using data retrieval tool DARTNET that assists in retrieving accounts, test data using advanced search mechanism using STATUS - Good Standing, Delinquent, Stolen, CARD-TYPE - Visa, MC, Amex and RELEASE CYCLES – June, August, October 06
•	Expert at using isql tool that was to query Informix and DB2 Databases. The tool was also used to write SQL queries and stored procedures to retrieve or validate information from the databases. The isql tool was run on Unix machines.
•	Updation and verification of credit card account information on Super stations - MSS, TSS, CLMS. MSS was used specifically to create cases to handle transactions on credit cards. Eg. Disputing a transaction. TSS was the customer service front end screen that can be used for account information retrieval and updation. Eg. Check status of credit card. CLMS is credit line management system that can be used to authorize the line of credit based on credit history and existing line of credit.
•	Expert using Netadmin tool – Used for managing the customer access information. Eg. Blocking/deleting login name, changing security message. 
•	Performed Regression Testing on Online Banking application for US, CA, UK customers separately during each code drop and at the beginning of each cycle.
•	Extensive participation in JAR and JAD sessions with all teams involved in project including offshore development and virtual testing teams.

Business/QA Analyst 
•	Gathering Business requirement, analyzing and then designing business model 
•	Tagging & Tracing in RequisitePro 
•	Used the different types of views in RequisitePro (Attribute matrix view, Traceability matrix to display requirements, attributes and there relationship with each other) 
•	Creation of security and service level agreements documents 
•	Created Vision Document, Software Requirements document, Software Development Plan Document, Risk-list document, and Risk Mitigation Plan Document. 
•	Developed test case scenarios, test cases and change request analysis by Using Rational ClearCase, Rational ClearQuest 
•	Facilitating JAD sessions and participating in meetings to engage Subject Matter Experts in business requirements definitions 
•	Creation, Review of Business and System Use Cases 
•	Coordinated status report meeting with the business and the internal team on a weekly basis. 
•	Assisted project managers with the development of project schedules and low-level design and analysis of applications. 
•	Worked with project management to analyze change requests to determine what is being requested and doing its impact analysis by making use of Rational ClearQuest. 
•	Independently performed the end-to-end analysis necessary to develop comprehensive and effective test strategies. The process included developing test plans, creating test conditions, scripts, and data to support the test. 
•	Facilitated system and user acceptance testing, 
•	Involved in meeting with stakeholders and users to review / manage expectations and identify opportunities to improve ROI. 

Environment: Rational Rose,UML, RUP, ORACLE, SQL, ASP.NET, MS Office, Rational Clear Case. QTP, Quality Center 8.2, INFORMIX, DB2, Java, SQL, Unix, DARTNET, SQL Server 2000, IIS


I have worked for a number of years at Merrill Lynch which was taken over by Bank of America. During my tenure before Bank of America, working in Operations felt as if you contributed something and you were treated with respect but once I moved into IT, I felt that respect was taken away and it only became worse after being taken over by Bank of America. My transition removed any hope of higher compensation which I thought was strange since I always thought that you would make more money. I was told by the hiring manager that it would be a lateral move and even though I left my previous position with a far exceeds rating, that would not transfer into anything when it should, you work hard, put in the time, when it comes to rewards it should amount to something but unfortunately, that was not so, my bonus did not factor in my work ethics. Right away, I should have realized what was in store for me at the "Global Service Desk." On a daily basis we would we would take between 60 and 80 calls with 1 morning and 1 afternoon breaks, if you missed your break, you lose it. There was no room for advancement here, it was definitely a brick wall, where any motivation was often removed and replaced by criticism and nepotism. There was the chosen few that was always taken care of and pushed into secured positions. Some of these were warranted but if you looked around, there were some that had no idea how and what they were doing in the positions they were given, while there were talent that was just willfully neglected to be given a chance to shine. The ones that were given the opportunity turned out to be self centered, obnoxious individuals who used their unworthy positions to rebuked, insult and make fun of other analysts in their 'private chat rooms'. This can be verified if you  look in these chat rooms, "this can be verified, look for it." There was the constant micromanaging done by the managers to get analysts off the call and move on to another, 'cut a ticket', 'cut a ticket'. 'Bold type fonts' screaming their impatience and displeasure at lengthy calls, while you are dealing with a frustrated user on the line was the daily grind of this 'dysfunctional and mismanaged Service Desk'. The managers clearly did not know how to manage, how could they, they did not posses any management skills, these were the same self centered, often obnoxious, insulting crop that would filter and slithered into the management roles, how can they be effective manager, and this is still happening there, investigate it, speak to the analysts, don't just take my word. There was no effective oversight, on many occasions they try to form a committee, but once again the members were specifically chosen and eventually nothing became of it. There were very skilled analysts who would often approach the managers for any available projects or who would volunteer to work on projects only to be told that it was already given to the 'chosen ones' who already had their hands filled and could not deliver on their own deadline. So you had managers who would yell, scream, insult and sometimes curse, you had those that just follow redundant, over vigilant protocols and can't seem to make a recommendation that would benefit you but themselves. There were a few that seemed to be always boozed up  
swaying on this limb between reality and their own perceived, inventive ga ga land, these people are still there, investigate it, talk to the analysts and these characters would emerge. Every so often they do a 'clean up', reshuffling of the deck, but pay attention and you will see the kind of cards that get tossed and moved to the bottom of the desk. The bottom line is this, Bank of America's Service Desk is one of the worst place I have ever and will ever work, they show no respect for majority of their employees, they don't encourage or motivate their employees and if they do they do it on the most minimal level. They show nepotism and I would say this they are racists, that element shows from all levels of the managers there, just look at the diversity makeup of this Service Desk. They hire unskilled minorities so they can pay them less, provide minimum training, which can only lead to them and their 'chosen' vilifying them on that ever thin ladder to nothingness. Everyone can be a manager, not everyone can manage. If you are put in a position to manage and your employees are not motivated, then you 'FAILED AS A MANAGER', that's your job, you were privileged, it's not the employees' fault it's yours, you have failed to manage. Don't take my word for it, speak to the analysts, the truth is out there, investigate it.

When I worked for BOA, for more than a decade I was a top salesperson in my region. After the economy crashed in 2009, I was still a top performer consistantly every quarter. In the near subsequent years a new regional manager was hired to replace one that knew and appreciated my value. This person, in bank terms he was a consumer market manager or CMM, seemed to not like the way I did my job from day one. Nothing had changed, I still far exceeded my goals consistantly. However, it started out that he reprimanded me for not "Selling the Bank of America Way" then reprimanded multiple times for not "using my script." After these occurrences this same manager called in corporate security to investigate me for crediting a customer's account for, no exaggeration, $1. After I explained that it was because a customer's ATM deposit of $1 was not credited because of an identified system error in which the customer produced his receipt as evidence. Now although this was within my authority and completely an acceptable and proper, corporate security investigated per his request and of course found no ethical violation and in their findings expressed praise that I took the time to take care of a customer even though the dollar amount was so low. More reprimands followed for not going by our script in customer interactions. Even though each time I was reprimanded for such actions I was working with clients I had known for years. This leads to the last case which ultimately ended in my being fired after 12 years of exemplary service. I don't like to look at it like this but to me the evidence spoke for itself. I believe this manager had it in for me. My actual immediate manager, the banking center manager had always supported me 100%. The last case was an issue of what's called a signature card. Where a person signs when opening an account. I opened an account for a client who was referred to me by the banking center manager, who verified the information to the CMM. When they were reviewing the signature cards for audit preparation the CMM came upon this signature card and believed it to be forged because it was signed "heavy handed", the customer had since closed the account and the contact information was no longer valid so they were unable to have the customer verify if they had signed or not. Nevertheless, the CMM brought me to my manager's office where my manager was waiting with a sad look. The CMM told me that he believed I forged the signature. I defended myself stating I had never nor would I ever do such a thing. Besides the most important ethical reasons, it made no difference in my actual goals of I simply didn't have the card, plus my handwriting is far too sloppy to write that signature. I also explained that because it was odd I remembered clearly that the customer had used their own felt tip pen. Which is why I noticed at the time that the signature was in my words thick. None of that mattered and in the end the CMM stated that he believed it was forged. At this point my banking center manager spoke up and stated that he didn't believe I would do such a thing and that I was the best salesperson he ever had with a clientele that always came back to me and would follow me from across the county when I had been transferred previously. None of this mattered and the CMM stated I was being let go and to turn in my keys and combinations. There were many people that were shocked mainly because I always outperformed all of my colleagues in my position and also most of my colleagues in the next higher position. Not only in sales but customer service ratings surveys as well. The one thing I did have happen to show him the err of his ways after the fact was that days before I had convinced a long time client to move over 1 million dollars from a competing bank to a product I could set them up with. When the client came in to set up the account and was told I no longer worked there the same CMM tried to convince her to let another associate handle it. She refused and said if I wasn't there anymore then she had no reason to bank there anymore. So on top of losing a deposit over 1mill she also closed out her existing accounts which also held just over another million. To sum things up the bank became to robotic, not allowing for a personal experience anymore. In addition, one person in upper management can get rid of you even if your meeting and exceeding all your goals simply because they don't like you. 

CONs:
If you have a manager that is morally and ethically robbed, Bank of America will not do a SINGLE thing about it! Fortunately, several of the employees I worked with went on to work at better places. I saw a lot of great employees quit because our particular BCM (Banking Center Manager) treated employees terribly. We each made our complaints to corporate HR and saw ZERO results from it. 

A typical day at work included not getting any type of break unless you worked more than 5 hours and no matter how long in the day you worked, you only got a 30 minutes lunch at that.

Also included going through "campaigns" where you had to push a particular product onto most of your customers all day everyday.

Micromanaging - including your BCM standing inside your teller window and creeping up behind you while you spoke to customers. Customers would get uncomfortable and close-up.

Expect to constantly have to reach sales goals of 5% of your customers turning into referrals to bankers (need to be set appointments or see the banker in-person; phone calls were frowned upon) - sounds attainable until you consider that this can mean upwards of 8-10 sales closed PER DAY.

I would say that hardest part of the job was the aggressive sales goals because it took a lot of the focus OFF of serving the customer and moreso looking at that as a sales opportunity only. I did not like that. I always tried to look at it as "how can I help this customer?" but if I didn't land a sale on that person and my BCM found out, I'd get the 3rd degree. Not crazy about that.

Also, no compensation for sales and no incentives for tellers. You don't make commission, get incentives paid out, etc. NOTHING! You just get the benefit of keeping your job...maybe.



PROs:
I would say that the MOST enjoyable part of my job was the benefits - good pay (but no bonuses for tellers), GREAT insurance and benefits, and if you're doing anything relative to your work at BoA or the career paths within, then you may qualify for tuition reimbursement! 

They also offer an employee discount program (pretty standard for a lot of corporations this size) -- but took away their employee recognition program, which the most I ever got was a cheap hairdryer from anyway. They do not do many things to show they value their employees - like Wells does (incentives for tellers AND they have other appreciation programs like summits with the company's top leadership) so know that upfront and don't be disappointed.

I also enjoyed that my Assistant Manager did everything she could to work with our schedules and be flexible. If you request time off, you usually get it. I also liked having paid vacation, paid sick time off, etc.

The company does quite a few community volunteer events and participates in a lot of different charitable activities! If you donate to non-profit 501 c 3's, they will MATCH your donations I believe up to a certain amount.

If you volunteer a certain number of hours in a year to a specific charity, then you can receive a grant for that organization made from BoA in your name - REALLY cool! 



THE REST...
My advice would be to trust your intuition and to not let yourself be walked all over. There are some great leaders in this company and some great Managers and Assistant Managers and TOS (Teller Operations Specialists AKA Teller Managers) and so forth! :)

However, there are some bad apples (just like anywhere else) so just know how to handle the situations, when to leave, etc. Don't stick around if it doesn't feel right.

I learned not to let a job make me an unhappy person. Quitting this job was the best thing that ever happened to me because it allowed me to move onto a job that I now LOVE! I just wanted to make sure to come here and write my review as a reminder to others that if you ever feel mistreated by an employer, speak up. I think had I worked for another branch, the story MAY have been different. 


•	Coordinated and hosted meetings with multiple cross-functional groups involving Users, Technology Leads and Business Managers from distinct Business Groups to understand business requirements, formulate a solution and discuss timelines
•	Worked closely with Program Managers and Heads of Business and Technology Groups to discuss Issues, timelines, help set expectations on deliverables and co-manage the Project Plan along with the US Program Manager 
•	Analyze the Credit Risk and Market Risk Volatility Mapping for the Standardized Own Estimates Volatility Approach according to FSA BIPRU Regulatory rules for Gaps and inconsistencies in the risk measures like Dollar Duration, Modified Duration and Ratings. This included understanding and documenting the flow of the trade from the front end system (Trade Note) to the Risk systems including how the products like Agency and Non Agency Bonds are automatically mapped to an Index and the process to manually review and correct the same. The project involved a change to the current VaR process to calculate Profit and Loss Approximation Factors.
•	Brainstorm and gather requirements from the business for the Risk  Weighted Average  (RWA) and other components like Loss Given Default (LGD), Exposure at Default (EAD) and Counterparty Charge  component of the Basel III Compliance Guidelines for various financial products like Repos, Reverse repos, Securities Lending and Borrowing
•	As part of the Wrong Way Risk / Right Way Risk requirement for Credit Risk, analyze the various broker dealer products like Repos, Reverse Repos, Securities Lending and Borrowing using SQL and Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access and help categorize them as Right Way Risk or a Wrong Way Risk and other parameters like Expected Positive Exposure (EPE) and Potential Future Exposure (PFE). This analysis helped to include these products which are part of the US Broker Dealer in a feed to the Risk Calculation engine for inclusion in the overall Group Risk Calculations
•	Gathered and Documented the Business Requirements and Functional Specifications for the Standardized Market Risk Calculator for the US Investment Bank as part of the Dual Reporting Requirement. This included enumerating the steps for calculating Interest Rate PRR (Position Risk Requirement) for Fixed Income Products such as Government Bonds, Bills, Treasuries, Mortgage Backed Securities, Equity PRR for equity products such as  Equity, Preferred Stock and Convertibles and Option PRR for options on Equities, options on Interest Rate Futures and on securitizations
•	Analyze and Documented the process and specifications for the Reconciliation of trades sent from the US Broker Dealer to the Capital Calculation engine which calculates LGD, EAD, etc. and those sent back to the US Broker Dealer source systems for Allocation of Capital Charges to Traders and Trading Desks. This involved various calculations of the data sent back by calculating using Formulae for various input parameters like Exposure, Repo Collateral, Haircut, applying appropriate Exchange Rates, excluding certain trade types and then performing the reconciliation.
•	Gathered and documented the requirements for including US Trading Book Products which were not being included in the Global Capital Calculations as part of the Basel II Non-EEA FSA Reporting. This included data analysis using SQL and Excel and Data Mapping  involving the product attributes of Broker Dealer products like Delayed Delivery, When Issued and To Be Announced (TBA), OTC Derivatives like Interest Rate Swaps, Equity Swap Flows, Equity Index Swap Flows, Forward Rate Agreements (FRA) and Bond Options and Securities Lending Products determining the data required for Risk and Capital calculations along with the Business and creating a Business / functional requirements document as a deliverable


This company has pros and cons, and whether you will like working here depends on your personality. 

1. Before reading the following things, here are the pros...amazing compensation, you won't be super stressed compared to other companies as banking is a slow moving machine (group/manager dependent as always), vacation time is excellent (in 2021 they added more vacation time). If you like remote work this is the place for you (I personally enjoy working with my teammates face to face so I struggle with this). 

Paternity/Maternity leave & vacation is best around, 16 weeks. Try finding that anywhere else, and you'll find this is rare. I'm very appreciative of this benefit and love how they promote it.

2. Majority of groups within the bank that are salaried positions do not work in the same location. If you love remote work then you will not have a problem with this. I checked the organization chart for my division recently, and 100% of the salaried teams had 80%+ of their members in completely different locations (Charlotte, Kennesaw, Newark, Phoenix, Texas, Chicago, Jacksonville, etc.) If you want camaraderie and opportunities for team building outside of emails, you will not find satisfaction here. However, if you are in an operations environment (call center, helpdesk) then you will be with your team in the same location with a supervisor there as well.

3. Every group's manager is different. You may have one that has aggressive expectations, or one that is extremely lax and isn't aggressive at all. You may have a manager that gets nothing done, or is the best in the world. As with any company, this varies.

4. If you are a high skill / high motivation personality and like to constantly get wins and complete projects, achieve goals etc... be aware that depending on your group, things can move VERY slow in this company. One reason is because of regulations and everyone having to go through many "risk" related processes to reduce it, and another is that this company is so large that nobody actually knows who each other does. In my role this has been the biggest problem. 

An example: Every week in my role, there is a random group that interacts with my team, and we have never heard of them before. Projects get passed to us, and we don't know who requested them. My team has production support issues, and there are literally 5-10  groups that by their names sound like who we need to assist us, but nobody trained my group or supervisors on how to reach out to them. Even business as usual tasks can be cumbersome in this company. If you're in a smaller company, this will not happen as frequently. However...the benefit of this is job security to due to never ending open job postings!

5. A large percentage of the "Technology" resources (programmers, database admins, production support, etc). are offshore (India). All the big banks likely do this, as well as other big companies. Diversity is important, but communication  is extremely challenging between native English speakers and their offshore teammates, and it's very apparent if you come from a company that doesn't hire offshore resources. 

If you work here and have to collaborate with Technology groups, just be aware that you will have a significant number of meetings where there are *crickets* after an offshore employee discusses a point, and then someone else on the call asks them to repeat it due to miscommunication, or just moves on to the next point and doesn't get the message. Unfortunately, that's just how offshore collaboration goes.


My last boss introduced himself by saying "Bank of America is my second job." This was TYPICAL. When I was assigned a team across three channels, 30 of my 30 staff worked remotely. The FT had been there 9 and 14 years but would almost never come onsite. The onshore/offshore also were not online most of the time and few of them were productive. Even the five who were USA based would rarely come onsite. Rather than clean up this mess, my senior managers would not support any open dialog about [abyssmal] performance and my peer even actively worked to help the non-performing employees escape to his team - he'd also been there many years. People regularly dial into conference calls and announce themselves but are nowhere to be found 5-10 minutes later when you ask for them - not even online - and even onshore contractors do this. The place is a mess. That's the tip of the iceberg. A gal who'd been there 9 years in this same department and worked on the same small code base for around a year took 3 months to write a design document for a service layer port - a job she should have been able to do in 3 days. But, again, don't raise issues because you have to pretend its all good.
The middle management doesn't know how to run a business nor know technology. They are given big budgets ($M's to $10M's!) and blow around 1/2 of it on useless makework projects so they can show they did something. The typical middle manager strategy is to identify scapegoats. 5 of my 6 peer managers were either laid off, fired, or quit (well, one took a demotion). My boss was laid off, his boss quit, and her boss [forced to] quit. All within about 7 months. The only peer kept was the yahoo who tried to resuce the nonperformers (word from others was they actually had full-time jobs elsewhere - against policy unless approved. But "policy" is broken continuously and only enforced at the manager's pleasure.)
The new boss said "Bank of America is a dead beast and its up to us to take as much from it as we can". He did too. He replaced my assistant project managers with his buddies from the failed company Bank of America had acquired. They went off and did an Augmented Reality application. They all worked out of their houses. (Probably all had other jobs I'm guessing!) He had almost zero involvement in the numerous (20+) projects we were working for various business units (retail banking, small business banking, home loans and insurance, etc). But, at Bank of America, its not if you do your job, its if you know the right people. In fact, the longest lasting people I saw there actively avoiding doing any real work. This way they could never be blamed. And the senior managers? Whoa! Talk about ultra-sweetheart deals such as $5M annual spend with a vendor who's entire product could be replaced in <6 months for $500K. Sure, our offshore team re-wrote it once. The new boss spend a huge amount of time saying he was re-writing it. Etc. But, it never got done. I'm assuming he and the several others he hired were actually working on his "first job". ;-)
If you have no work ethic and no morals, you can make it there. Do as little as possible and never address any problems. Pretend the makework projects and the half-done work products are great. Remember, "Honor among thieves". Avoid this place if you have work ethic; otherwise it takes months to clean their slime off of yourself.

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