Good for Stability, Bad for Growth - Director (25) AIG Employee Review

2.0
4 Nov 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

AIG is a good place to park yourself when you want a bit of stability -- come in at 9, clock out at 5 and collect your paycheck. While the paycheck may be 15 to 20% below market, the bonus is cash -- no vesting period, not restricted stock, just straight cash.

Cons

The AIG Business Partners group, which runs IT, Operations, CCAR, Accounting, and Derivatives is a strange organization. You need to decide whether you will fit in or not. Firstly, the senior management has been working there since the 1980’s and 1990’s and are mostly lead by former AIG Financial Products directors. Con # 1 - They follow a strict bell-curve ranking. Every team gives out 1’s and 5’s for ratings. Since no one wants to give their star players 4’s and 5’s, they usually hire future 4’s and 5’s. **You may be hired into a 4 or 5, and you can do nothing about it.** Con # 2 - Most new senior management in the group are friends and family of the legacy group -- and you will likely not become a senior manager, director, or executive unless you are part of the Greenwich-Darien-Weston community. Con # 3 - Most of the bonus pool goes to the top (see #1) and you cannot get to the top (see #1) -- this is not JP Morgan with a career progression plan. You stay in the position you were hired into. Con # 4 - If you build the technology, or are a user of it, good luck. Most of the technology is from the 1980s.

Explore other reviews about AIG

5.0
13 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good vibe and work life balance

Cons

slow and outdated tech stack

2.0
28 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Salary and vacation days are good but be careful you are not taking on multiple roles for this position.

Cons

If you’re considering applying, make sure to ask in the interview: Will there be someone else doing what I am doing? If not, the team is understaffed and all the responsibility will rest on your shoulders. Even with the vacation days, your days will be swamped and stressful. It is NOT worth it. Out of curiosity, I’ve been looking at their latest job postings for my department and there is so much packed into one role, it’s wild. You can tell the person they’re trying to replace clearly wore too many hats and it will be a long struggle to fill this position. Are my team members working in other time zones? You can face several early morning calls based on their hiring pattern. Some teams will require annual or quarterly traveling. Over the years, the company is hiring mainly white managers domestically in the USA, while lower roles are hired abroad or contractors. Meetings to accomodate offshore hours are brutal. What percentage of the day is in meetings? If you don’t have time to deliver on output because of meetings, you will likely have to stay late to complete the work. The company seems to hire very good talkers but not a lot of do-ers. Several meetings involved more people than needed. Managers seem to think “if I have to suffer through this meeting, everyone has to suffer”. If managers are fortunate enough to delegate the deliverables, they can handle some meetings by themselves. Who would be handling my onboarding and training when I start? If it is not your direct manager, your early success will be at the mercy of your peers who understandably are not responsible for onboarding you. Sadly, I have observed that the people-managers do not like to manage people. In fact, they value those that manage the manager and the team’s roadmap plan for them. The managers don’t seem to want to oversee the team or their deliverables. If there is a job change (salary, position, hours) how is that communicated? In my experience these things were not communicated or consented to. The change would apply in the system and you would have to conform accordingly.

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