Worst place in the Chicago metropolitan area to work for! - Senior Software Engineer Discover Employee Review

1.0
21 Apr 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The only good thing i had here was the work life balance, as my team didnt have much work but despite of that they want you to sit like a robot from 9 am to 5 pm and leaving even half hour early when you have nothing to do gets you a 1 on 1 the next morning.

Cons

This will be a long list! 1) Extremely low pay and year end bonus package. 2) Doesnt take care of its employees but spends all their money on themselves, such as spending millions of dollars on renovation, award ceremonies decoration, new buildings, basement pingpong/game center and please that wii and arcade games was a ridiculous idea! 3) Lots of favoritism by managers. 4) Lots of managers/team lead with outdated militaristic ways of management from 19th century, where the management dictates your every move down to the letter. If they say you sit you sit, if they say stand you stand, you dont do anything your way. 5) No freedom of speech, or just for anything! 6) Its a shame to call this place a tech oriented company as even to install one of the basic software, you have to take permission which can take days. 7) Lots of bad co workers with professional jealousy, watching your every move, and bad mouthing each other, rather than working together as a team. 8) Bad managers for tech lead, who have not a zero bit idea from the tech perspective of what is going on. 9) Some managers treat you like their children, they monitor what you say, what time you come in, what time you leave, how much time you browse the net, whether you bring a notepad to a meeting, questions you ask in the meeting. 10) Outdated technology in tech teams. 11) Full of office politics where no department agrees with other departments. 12) Horrible culture! 13) Difficulty finding parking most of the time. 14) Way too much unnecessary security on campus and on our pc's. 15) You are required to take lots of online classes all the time for "learning" which doesnt even relate 1% to your job.

Explore other reviews about Discover

5.0
8 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It was a great work-life balance company.

Cons

After the acquisition, everything changed; the company became toxic by Capital One

5.0
28 Mar 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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