Everything feeds from the top and if you find yourself in a business line that is out of fashion, you can be treated like pariah. Otherwise it is a great spirited place to work with a good reputation. Be aware of the big differences between the three main divisions and the kudos attached to them. In order they are Wealth Management (best), Investment Banking, Asset Management. From the outside you are just UBS, but internally the divisions are very severe and there is little cross collaboration.

Pros

Great reputation. Generally better job security than peers.

Cons

Modest pay. Strong division between divisions.

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Fast paced and long hours

Chief of Staff, Global Equity Derivatives (Former Employee) - London - 13 August 2022

Work past paced to keep up with or ahead of competition in process and system management and in serving clients. The offices are easily accessible and well laid out with a good team about to collaborate with, despite the long working g hours (when I was there, anyway).

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Insights into UBS

Based on 6 survey responses

What people like

Feeling of personal appreciation
Ability to learn new things
Clear sense of purpose

Awful management but some great team members

Director (Former Employee) - London - 28 July 2022

The company has a self delusional idea of being one of the best employers, but management find any excuse to knock your bonuses and restrict promotions. The bonus pool is relatively large but is distributed amongst an oligarchy where most people get next to nothing compared with their base salary. Learning is very much on the job as anyone with a modicum of decent knowledge is either too busy to help you, too scared to share their knowledge or has moved on to an employer that cares.On a positive, some of the nicest team members with whom I’ve worked.

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Well rewarded but bad culture

Director (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 10 July 2022

Excellent pay but for that you have to work under extreme pressure. Leaving before 6/6.30 is a huge no, you’re not busy enough if you’re able to leave at this time - even though other days you could be working until 10pm and logging on at weekends. Extremely difficult to recruit additional heads. Bizarrely, No exit interview process even after citing specific reasons for leaving after 8 years. Not interested in finding out why they can’t retain talent. HR: Everything is offshored, and as such can’t even get a line into a HR generalist: every issue or question is raised via a portal (even as a manager). Everything is a constant challenge.

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Great Internship Experience

Technology Intern (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 17 June 2022

Opportunity to get involved in interesting projects, also asked to take initiative and work on the things I was most interested in.People were always helpful, and friendly and, despite being busy, made time to communicate and ensure my questions were answered. Overall, really enjoyed the experience and would recommend it for anyone with an interest in finance.

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Not a bad company to work for but progression is inexistent

Business Manager (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 14 February 2022

Organization used to be flat generally very collaborative. In an effort to "industrialise" and cut costs a lot of jobs are getting more and more trivialized with decision making in the hands of few senior managers. No empowerment and career progress is inexistent.

Pros

none

Cons

long hours, no promo opportunities, more work in the sake of efficiency for the same pay year on year, no empowerment and getting worse

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Challenging environment but a great one to be in if you can commit to the workload

Associate (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 6 January 2022

Long days at work but rewarding if you can commit to it. The vast majority of people are very smart and keen to progress. Can be quite bureaucratic and did not have great policies during COVID

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Productive and fun place to work

Associate Director - Executive Assistant (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 26 November 2021

Great place to work with like-minded people, and supportive management. Flexible working is accepted. Great office facilities. Scope for internal mobility.

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Unreasonable worklife balance

Administrator (Current Employee) - London - 21 January 2021

Having worked here a for several years now, I can honestly say that I would never recommend any of my friends or relatives to work for UBS despite the monetary incentives available for this. Whilst pay seems to be akin to what you might expect, most roles will kill your lifestyle balance. There are so many people off with stress, and not just for short periods, but for extended periods of time. Mistakes are rife, corners being cut and it really affects moral. Your colleagues are the best point about working there which is often said. It makes the job fun, and interesting at times. It has certainly made me think twice about leaving so far. Lots of challenges day to day which makes the job interesting and fulfilling at times. Management has their head in the clouds and are all about how they look amongst their peers across the group rather than for the client or employees. Too busy patting each other on the back, rather than actually addressing issues in their teams. Lots of mixed messenging from management. I think the management issues is result of the way Performance is measured in the company. It's based on relative performance, and not actual performance. If people leave then it is a battle to replace, as every management function is looking to cut costs. A positive is that there is a lot training and development tools available to the individual, but little or no time to take advantage due to workload and stress. Lots of opportunities to take part in volunteering locally, but again, I don't know anyone who has time to do this, so it is pointless. Offices are spacious and -

Pros

Peers and colleagues, good opportunities if you have time to explore them, Nice workplace

Cons

Pros: Work life balance is a joke, Management often do not back up what they say, Feel like things are not moving forward

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I have worked within this company for many years and love it as much now as my first day.

Float Secretary (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 26 August 2020

UBS is a diverse and interesting company to work for and will help you in setting your goals and objectives. Friendly people and lovely offices to work.

Pros

Gym

Cons

None

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Jobs at UBS

Physical Security Specialist (GCS)

London

10 days ago

Consultant – Management Consulting, London

London

30+ days ago

Recruiter, Global Markets

London

27 days ago

Executive/Team assistant

London

13 days ago

Productive and friendly workplace

Finance Assistant (Former Employee) - City of London, Greater London - 14 June 2020

UBS provides a flexible enviroment for its employees, giving the option of working at home or in the building. Colleagues are helpful and facilities are satisfactory

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Best Place To Work

Business Analyst (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 5 June 2020

The culture and infrastructure of UBS is really good and is a very good place to work at. Office building and its surroundings are very good. We actually look forward everyday to go to office.

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UBS is a great place to work

Technical Project Manager (Contract) (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 22 May 2020

Great people and an understanding culture. They want to do things the right way which is refreshing. There is always plenty of work and tight deadlines so you have to work hard but management is generally excellent.

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Productive and flexible workplace

Senior Project Manager (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 4 May 2020

UBS is a good place to work. Balance between work and family life is encouraged at UBS. Working with UBS I was able to provide leadership to UBS global delivery teams as Senior Project Manager, in managing end-to-end delivery of Identity and Access Management (IDAM) transformation projects, Application Migration and Infrastructure upgrade. Implement Single Sign-On (SSO) and Authentication Services (1FA and 2FA/Multifactor Authentication) on UBS platform with CA Strong Authentication and CA Risk Authentication products for use by external clients. .

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Difficult work environment

head of real estate debt emea ex Switzerland (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 9 April 2020

Dealing with many different people who have conflicting agendas. Changing divisional heads brings new strategies that potentially adverse affects employment prospects.

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Professional place to work

Several (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 5 April 2020

Working times are standard with high quality workforce. Workplace culture is defined by the 3 keys. Hardest part is solving key issues whilst trying to penetrate layers of management. Best part are the people.

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Many opportunities to grow

Director (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 2 April 2020

Decent place if you have a career at one bank. They have good facilities and the canteen is good if you like your food. Great opportunity to see the world in other offices.

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Relaxed

Technical Business Analyst (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 18 March 2020

no day the same learnt a lot about XVA flat management structure relaxed work culture harderst part of the job when feeds failed most enjoyable part of the job when tasks suceeded

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too much work

Risk Analyst (Former Employee) - London, united kingdom - 15 March 2020

it depends upon in which process you get in and depending upon the work load the whole experience is based. I was working in London, where it was quite busy and the balance was just fine.

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Great experience

Lead Business Analyst (Risk) (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 3 March 2020

Challenging and exciting - Worked in a fast paced environment and had to learn quickly but never felt pressurised. Colleagues are very helpful and collaborative

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Enjoyed working in a team

COO Risk - Business Risk Manager (Associate Director) (Former Employee) - London - 19 February 2020

Working in Wealth Management and supporting the Operations area. A team of four risk managers plus a line manager - this helped me to learn new skills working with others.

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