Avantages
A lot has been written about this company, some with merits and some very one-sided. While I can empathize with the comments offered, I also believe every company has their good and their bad. Therefore, I’m hoping to give you a full (both sided) perspective on what ProShares is like. I’ll provide an unfiltered view of the company’s good qualities and the areas which could use improvement, based on my experience and observations; that which is shared by others as well. What we do well? Investment Solutions – We are very lean-operating $26 billion investment firm in the rapidly growing ETF industry. Our investment products are innovative and I am every day more excited about the solutions we are offering and the opportunity to make a real difference in the investment space. Colleagues / Socializing – We have incredible colleagues, great talent, and loads of opportunity to socialize: monthly birthday lunches, quarterly happy hours, company-wide team challenges, get fit challenges, office casino or wine tasting nights, summer family outings, and black-tie holiday parties in exclusive DC locations. Annual Bonuses – Remember that? Yes - We still get them. Even doing the recession! Again, it’s a $26 billion firm. Community Outreach – Lots of opportunities to support local charities throughout the year, including company match to your charity of choice. Benefits – Good, not the best, but definitely better than many: Free legal resources, Friday free breakfast, health club reimbursement, 401K match (industry standard), tons of paid development or education i.e. CFA, MBA, Leadership training Work/Life Balance – Compared to most firms in the financial sector, especially in New York, Chicago, Philly and other big cities, it is NOT the norm here to be in the office past 6pm. Most people have great work/life balance. Naturally, for those that are juggling multiple responsibilities and positions, that may not always be the case. In which case, commensurate salary increases would be greatly appreciated. But for the most part, you do not have a cutthroat Wall Street (I slept less hours than you, yeah!) culture. You can have a family, make it to your kids’ baseball game or dance recital, and still have a very rewarding career. Location – Downtown Bethesda – Need I say more? CEO – I don’t think there are many firms where the CEO knows your name and remembers what you’ve accomplished or cares to address you in the hallway. I can honestly say that we have a rare CEO that cares about making this a great place to work, has an open door policy to learn about what’s going on in his organization, celebrates professional accomplishments i.e. CFA designations, etc. And genuinely has an interest in getting feedback from his employees. If you see him in the coffee room or in the hallway, he’ll be sure to address you by name, ask you how you’re doing, ask you what’s going on with you workwise and how he can help. I think sometimes he may get a bad rap for caring too much about the work each department is doing – I think that just makes him invested. I think he cares to receive new ideas or solutions that can make this company a great success instead of receiving filtered information of what people think he wants to hear. He’s right to dig to try to cut out the noise and get to real solutions. A great step towards that have been smaller department meetings, providing one-on-one with the CEO. But like any relationship – it takes two. So these meetings will only be as good as employees are willing to be as candid as possible in order to have true dialogues about what problems we can solve, what innovations we can create, how we can continue to build a great culture. All in due time, but we’re on the right course. Management Team – There have been some new recent additions that I think bring much-needed fresh ‘big picture’ ideas, great perspective, experience and am confident can help to make this an even better place when given the opportunity i.e. Head of Marketing and Head of HR. I think this is a good counterbalance to those that get focused on insignificant details without a broad strategic perspective. “Recession-Proof” – Our broad and varied product lineup puts us in a great position to perform well in any type of market conditions – so you get a good sense of job security because your job is not at the whim of the markets.
Inconvénients
Where we can improve? Compensation – We are compensated well for our titles. However, again, we are a very lean organization, which means many employees, especially low–to-mid level are certainly doing double and even triple duty. So in light of the ACTUAL work being performed, not your title, compensation can certainly be increased across the board to make a meaningful impact to employees’ financial well-being. The most senior positions are already well-compensated so congrats if you landed one but frankly a few may be questioned – what does he do? On the bright side – it is the opportunity to handle more responsibilities beyond your position that helps you grow professionally and personally, to develop skills you would otherwise not do at other firms, which makes you even more valuable when considering to jump-ship. You WILL get more money for your talent elsewhere for the 2-5 years you’ve put in here. In terms of developing skill set and market knowledge base, I’d say 2-5 years at ProShares would be equivalent to 8-10 years at a larger more bureaucratic firm. How can we improve? Malcolm Gladwell noted in the Tipping Point that under 150 employees was the magic number for people management, company culture, efficiencies, and innovation. I think we have great core values that many truly live by and the firm can benefit by focusing on remaining a lean organization. More bodies doesn’t equate to achievement. It’s the talent that makes the difference. In order to accomplish that, it’s imperative to focus on retaining the top talent by providing recognition through title and equitable salary raises, according to the actual experience, knowledge base, and responsibilities that is being held. Engaged employees are an appreciating asset and the cost of retaining great talent is extremely small compared to the cost of their replacements (i.e. recruiting, sign-in bonus, training, job learning curve, etc.). Not to mention that you may refill a position, but you don’t know if the talent is even being replaced. Growth opportunity – We are a lean organization with a somewhat flat structure – this structure allows you to take on additional responsibilities and develop your skill set and talent, making you highly marketable in the workplace. However, this structure also creates a glass ceiling. For any top performer, you’re usually looking to move ahead, challenge yourself and grow – doing the status quo is NOT your thing. Frankly, sticking to the status quo generally does not lend well for a firm to innovate, outperform and continue to grow. Instead, it causes a firm to stagnate. While still being a lean organization, there can be room to create those advancement opportunities in pay, title, and experience that keeps employees engaged and motivated to do their best. And more importantly to remain with the firm. Otherwise, without growth opportunity for individuals to improve their personal financial well-being, we risk losing our appreciating assets to other firms that can provide such opportunities and are happy to take our well-trained, highly experienced employees and in effect create a brain drain on the firm, slowing the firm’s progress forward. If we lose talent = colleagues have to pick up the slack = lowers morale causing disengaged employees = cost the company substantial money upwards of at least 200x that colleagues salary = reduces time and energy available for existing employees to focus on solving problems and creating solutions or innovations to propel the firm forward. Google offered their employees 2 extra hours to just think. Innovative results from that included Gmail, Google Maps, and other highly effective products. If only we had that instead of making up for lost talent, what could we all accomplish together? Decision Process – Expect for decisions from higher ups to take an excruciatingly long time in some instances. On the bright side, we rarely make rash decisions that can then hurt us and this has proven extremely beneficial to us. On this subject, I would remind that the Titanic sank because it didn’t turn fast enough. I recommend we try to find a healthy balance to keep us on course yet nimble enough to capture opportunity that can truly help the firm internally and externally. The bright spot is that this is already a work-in-progress. Senior / Mid-Level Managers – This category can go either way, as with any company. Simply want to highlight that the talent and skill set for people management is unique to people management and very hard to find. Some managers naturally have it and some don’t and therefore need training (Note: training may not even work with some managers simply because they’re not the right talent for people management). Some have great potential for management roles and should be developed. Be mindful that other than pay, the two biggest reasons employees in general become disengaged or leave their firms are due to the lack of appreciation and bad managers. At ProShares, we have some amazing people Managers that truly understand what that role entails and you will learn substantially from them. A few, well, not so much. Fortunately, the odds are in your favor. Overall - I have really enjoyed my time at ProShares. I have met some amazing colleagues that will forever be considered my friends. Each day I am more excited about the direction and solutions we are offering to make a real difference in the investment space. And we have a CEO that is very much invested in making this a great culture. This is a highly successful firm and I think it’s a great opportunity to be joining the firm as it’s currently focused on improving the employee experience and equally breaking great grounds in the investment space. I’m confident in the CEO’s vision and direction for this company. We have great employees working here so come and join us if you are a team player, bringing A+ quality work. If you are looking just to get a job and do the bare minimum, then don’t apply. You may survive a year or two, but eventually you’ll find yourself drowning amongst a sea of colleagues that are competent, intelligent, fun to work with, want-to-make a difference, and are mostly great team players. When we’re running such a lean organization as we are, dead weight can really be felt amongst all your colleagues and it hinders great talent from focusing on making this a great organization instead of carrying a dead weight. This is a great place to work for people that are true go-getters, make-it-happen, bring ideas, and are not afraid to speak up and make a difference. For anyone that is low-to-mid level, I would add that you’ll gain very marketable experience, develop great skill set, and have opportunity to contribute to a fast growing segment of the financial markets, which would not be feasible to do at a larger, more bureaucratic firm. Based on both the good qualities and the areas for the improvement, I think this is a great time to join the firm and be part of making this a great place. When else can you make a positive difference?