My nightmare experience working at BofA
So, I interned at BofA in summer 2023, specifically in the consumer credit sector and had an amazing experience. I enjoyed the work I was doing, and the people I worked with but did not see areas for growth in that specific line of business. At the end of my internship, we had the opportunity to rank the different credit team, each supporting a drastically different line of business (commercial banking, commercial real estate, Private Bank, investment banking, global markets) to be placed on for the 2 year analyst program after graduating college and returning full time. For context, it was a given you had to stay on that team for a full 2 years and could not under any circumstances be moved elsewhere. I was told upon receiving my return offer I would be in commercial real estate. Well, a month before starting full time, I was told I was instead being placed in global markets, which was my next to last ranking. I was not happy about this because the traded products area seemed boring to me, but a job is a job, so I sucked it up.
Immediately upon starting, I felt like a lot of the work was too complex and I felt stupid, behind and incompetent. Most of my team sat in the NYC office and I was in another city, with only one other team member in the same office with me. He was not very coachable and had worked in the area for 10 years along with our manager (who was in NYC). The senior level team member constantly looked for mistakes in my work and never guided me in the right direction. Whenever I would ask him a question, he would say “I don’t know, you tell me.” Then I quit asking questions because that happened every single time I would attempt to ask. This continued on for a year into my job, and I skated along completing my credit monitoring tasks fine. I was never given kudos when I did something correctly.
In July, we had midyear reviews. My year end earlier that year was fine and I got a positive one. Earlier in March or April, after the team member who was giving me the issues yelled at me on the floor saying “You made yourself look SO STUPID over email,” I reported him anonymously to HR. As part of my midyear, the senior team member in the office with me gave all of his feedback to our manager, and I was blindsided with an extremely negative midyear review, with them giving me 2 months to turn my alleged poor performance around or else I would be put on a PIP. My aunt advised me to start looking for a new job immediately, in which I updated my resume and started mass applying. I made a vow to not quit until I got a new offer, as bad as this situation was. My work was being tracked on a spreadsheet with set deadlines every week in which was updated, and while I was applying externally after hours, I was determined to not be put on a PIP, and I say I was meeting about 90% of my set deadlines. The team member who was bullying me, we’ll call him Axel, began stepping up his efforts to push me out the door, writing down how long I was away from my desk on a piece of paper and talking bad about me to other coworkers, referring to me as an “incompetent dumb blonde,” and a “DEI hire for being female.” I later found out Axel told his only “friend” we’ll call him Anthony, in the elevator I got a bad midyear and that “management and HR were involved.” I went to my manager and said Axel spread private information about my midyear review to other coworkers and he called me a liar and said “Axel wouldn’t do that.”
He had been reported to HR before I started at the bank for being racist, and he also called a colleague at 11 PM and cussed him out. He made personal attacks against my character and told me that I was “far from a 10” in terms of looks after overhearing another conversation.
As he amped up his micromanaging and attacks, this took a toll on my mental health, I was throwing up the night before work and the morning of, and averaging 3-4 hours of sleep per night. When the PIP Verdict date rolled around, my manager and Axel said “We see improvement but it’s not enough. We are pushing the PIP deadline another 30 days until end of October.” My aunt said that was a major red flag, they should have had me sign something then or drop it altogether.
At this point, I had put in 150 job applications since end of July-early August, and I was getting interviews back, which was promising. I kind of quit caring at that point, because I knew my exit was near. A few close work friends who sat on my floor on different teams were helping me through the progress and giving me interview pointers (behind closed doors, in private rooms and on coffee walks).
One day a month before I left, Axel could see I did not feel threatened on some harsh feedback on something, and turned to me and said “let’s go into a conference room. Don’t worry, it will be all good.” I reluctantly followed him in there and he then went off on me saying “Look, I know you have been formulating your exit plan, don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been doing, don’t think I don’t know you get coffees with your little friends and talk about how much of a jerk I am to work with. If I were you and my career were on the line I’d be terrified. I’d be doing everything I could to save myself here. There are other people I have discussed your situation with and I’m not naming names, and they are astonished you aren’t doing more to save yourself at this place. Me and your manager are looking for stuff on you, and we will find something.” After work that day, I broke down crying in the elevator to a lady and she said that was a threat and discrimination. I do not believe any of my work friends told Axel my “exit plan” because they were terrified of him, too, nobody talked to Axel on our floor because they all thought he was mean. I felt so unconfident in my role, and that I was not cut out for credit/banking at all. I felt stupid. Luckily, I got an offer elsewhere and took that. I am a lot happier, and this role, both the work and people, are a much better fit, it has shown me it was never about me and more that I was in the wrong place.
Has anyone ever had an experience like this at BofA or any other corporate job? For this being my first job out of college, it was disappointing I had this experience but I’m glad it’s behind me now and I’m in a much better place.