Pros
Great profit sharing, 401k and roth IRA matching. In the height of the recession, American Express was the only financial institution to actually make a profit. On top of that, during the same period, the president, Ken Chenault passed on his own bonus to trickle that down to employees. That's why I took the job. I know what American Express stands for, it cares about its people, has great benefits, has great stability, and you feel proud to say you work for this company.
Kontras
Painfully slow to adopt new technology (completely normal for a financial institution) Too many veterans and not enough fresh talent. Terrible work-life balance Extreme and dated outlook on working from home/remotely. Working from home/remotely is frowned on and discouraged. If you're looking for flexibility, go elsewhere. Outsourced, contracted and, in some cases, grossly underpaid and under-skilled technical talent. Stupid bonus system for full time employees that "unofficially" unfairly pits you against your peers to determine what kind of bonus you're going to get this year. I say unfair because it's completely subjective, is based off of your top 3-4 "goals" for the year, and has more to do with who knows your name than how good of an employee you are. Unless you are really good at bragging about yourself or making yourself sound important, you won't get a good bonus/raise. It's just broken and doesn't award the people that make the biggest contributions to the company.