travel consultant

marketing intern

senior analyst

business development executive

marketing analyst

American Express

What is the best part of working at the company?
My experience at American Express has been incredibly rewarding. The team is fantastic, and the employee benefits are some of the best in the country. I’ve had the opportunity to work on meaningful projects that have challenged me to grow both professionally and personally. The work culture is one of the highlights, with a collaborative and supportive atmosphere. However, it's important to note that promotions can be extremely challenging, as the standards are high and the competition is fierce. Despite this, the experience has been invaluable in honing my skills and advancing my career.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part about working at American Express is the exceptionally high workload. The job demands agility in every aspect, as you're constantly balancing the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. The company expects nothing less than the best results, and anything less is not acceptable. Prioritizing tasks, consistently delivering above expectations, and providing the best customer experience every day are key to thriving in this environment. If you're unable to meet these demands, it can be difficult to sustain long-term success.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment at American Express is reflective of its size, so you’ll encounter a wide range of experiences. However, from my personal perspective, the culture has been very supportive, with a strong sense of camaraderie. It’s a place where team collaboration and mutual backing are emphasized, creating an environment that feels inclusive and encouraging.

There is a sincere problem with american express treating it's employees, they sometimes treat you  as corporrate slaves. Their bonus structure is out there to get you, so you don't earn your bonus. And they are always randomly changing things, Most of this can be lost, if a card member gives a survey about you, no mattter how hard you try to save a bad mood card member, you will get a poor call which in turn would make you lose your bonus. Still does not sound convincing? Card members are asked two questions, one about the company and one about the agent they are working for. If the member is not in a good mood, he will rate american express poorly, and excellent for agent it would still effect the agent as poor, and would look poor in monthly evaluation. Amex  takes away your bonus to reduce the damage of the card member's views about the company,  if the card member considers amex to be poor, Amex doesn't say thank you for trying to save a card member but instead considers the employee poor in dealing with cm. At some times, it is American express's fault for not having leeway in dealing with some customers. Upper management can sometimes change situation with card members, but it rarely happens, so ones who are automatically affected are amex's agents. They tell frontline workers, to treat customers in a humanely way, but fail to reach that objective with their employees. This is current standard of american express today. They make changes, and they should aim to create a standard quality for their frontline workers.

Amex Canada is mostly mid-management (i.e. Manager/Sr Manager) with very limited upward movement.  Most people stay at their level all their careers or 10-15 years minimum.  Management love to promote the "linear" career model as it's the only one they offer.  Not that I'm opposed but it does lead to churn.  It also leads to disenfranchised among the ambitious.  Tenure is very high (a positive sign) but I found this was actually a disadvantage that contributed to the lack of breadth in leadership.  They don't understand the world outside their walls - just ask most people that work in business.   Women are vigorously promoted and championed and depending on which team you're with, outnumber the men by a wide margin.  Culturally a very competitive work environment and annual raises are discussed amongst the people-leaders with each having to out-compete others for raises.  While the company believes this encourages collaboration - this is counterintuitive and results in the opposite happening.  I tend to lead with a servant style and want to support others but this was frowned up by my management ..."you share too much" was a frequent refrain.  I didn't choose to leave when I did but it was in the cards.  If they weren't one of few companies that offered remote work I would have been gone long before.  

Going to work was a joy for me. Being in a leadership role truly gave me a sense of "belong" where I had the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of individuals by showing them their potential and helping them believe in themselves; elevating their confidence. Seeing the glass have full instead of half empty all the time. Putting our heads together..myself and my coworkers were a team. We tried to do things collaboratively and shared best practices for the betterment of the business. Understanding the company's vision from management and being able to carry this out to my team and break it down so they can understand the big picture is something that management always looks for. How effectively can you influence your people to get the best out of them. The hardest part of my job was keeping the momentum going without losing myself in the process. You'll never have the team 100%...but I belive in the 80/20 rule. Focus on those who are willing to work hard for you and who are driving results...and keep them motivated. Those who aren't...identify issues and put an action plan in place...if necessary performance manage. The most enjoyable part of my job was to see the growth and development of people whether it be mini break throughs or huge milestones...it's a gift that I give which is the giving of myself to others to see them succeed.

My overall experience was okay. I learned a new skill. The organization as a whole was why this workplace rates so low in my opinion. The travel program is brand new and due to this, the managers are incredibly unprepared and there arent enough direct policies and procedures in place to protect employees. I basically sat their all day and advised customers that they could not get a refund on their overly expensive airfare. Not a good job for anyone who doesnt have shoulders made of stone. The GDS system used to book airfare hotel and car services, are AWFUL. they are incredibly prone to freezing, glitching through literally every process, and isnt used entirely streamlined. Its just a very mid workplace... My colleagues were the best part of working there. Compensation is also disappointing for the scope of the job. You are basically expected to do a billion things. The bonus structure is incredibly unobtainable, even if they say it isnt and even if you reach the highest tier by some miracle, you wont even be getting that much of a bonus. An incredible program, that could be so much better if AMEX had given it more time to brew before launching. Simply, unorganized. 

• A typical day consisted of working with team of highly motivated customer service focused employees.  Sometimes, working with SME's to ensure employees transition back into some of their roles seamlessly when necessary. Sometimes training employees to deliver optimum service.

I motivated, coached and inspire employees into delivering the best service possible while keeping them focused and engaged. It was important for me to create goals and development plans and guided my direct reports in  acquiring the roles they set out for themselves in a timely manner.


• Most enjoyable part of my  job was always working with my team and celebrating their successes.  As a company we would engage in  an annual  Diversity Day celebration where diverse culture would showcase their national heritage and arts.  It was such a wonderful feeling to be a part of such a Multicultural such organization that cared about their employees and demonstrated it with such pride.

It was great to have  worked for The World Most Respected Service Brand! AMERICAN EXPRESS INC.,

I would start my day at 4:30pm and immediately begin taking calls. I would adhere to my scheduled breaks and end the day at 1:00am. The calls I would service are incoming calls from American Express card holders that reside in the United States of America. I have an extensive knowledge of credit card laws, both in the U.S.A. and in Canada, and I use this knowledge to ensure I provide accurate information to the card members that call for assistance. I have learnt a lot from this position and have been able to use it within the company and provide fellow Customer Care Professionals with accurate information with my time spent assisting our Supervisor Team. During this time, I would log in and be there primarily to assist other Professionals if they needed the assistance, and I would also take escalated calls. I appreciated that this job has challenges, some times different challenges every day. Every situation is different and they can not all be handled the same way, which is why I had to use my previous and newly learnt knowledge, and utilize the resources available to me, to ensure the accuracy and efficiency of information.

A typical day for work would be to analyse fraudulent cases that have been set up, make out bound calls to verify charges, as well as receive calls. i would also receive inbound calls from credit and discuss with customers about their accounts that was past due and collect on them. 

During my years of service i have gained knowledge and expertise to handle many challenging situations. I have learned how to motivate and work with people, i have learned to build trust and accomplish tasks in a short period of time. 

I work closely with the management and submit reports when there are errors on the system and what needs to be done during that period. 

Helping co-workers when they get stuck on calls, working with new hires towards success and building moral and confidence.

The hardest part of the job is to leave work at the end of the day. 

The enjoyable part of the job is to know that i was able to help many customers and colleagues with their problems and also knowing that i gave my 110% at the end of each day. 

The work culture and ethic was very good. A place where (in sure if this is still the case) management stressed on how to deal with clients professionally and provide the best in class service. My stint at AMEX Canada helped build my approach to how I work with both internal and external clients.

The pay was not the greatest and management resisted granting pay raises even though you were taking on newer responsibilities. I stated as a CSR which at that time was an entry level position, however, when I moved from there to UAT which fell within the technologies group, even though my managers acknowledged that this was an altogether different field of work with much higher responsibilities, the director and VP at the time did not align the pay bracket. Something that I feel was the ingrained culture of upper management. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was the people you work with.(except managers from Director level and above)

IT is being overrun by an obvious group of managers who refuse to collaborate with anyone outside their group.  Processes suffer and the culture is mired in back-stabbing, mistrust.  Managers who are outside this circle have a target on their back, there is a concerted effort to ruin them politically, and replace them with cronies of the 'insiders'.  However, the insiders are extremely competitive amongst themselves, also do not collaborate and their teams only react to crisis.  Management has created such a pervasive culture of mistrust and heavy handed/ top down rule - that individual employees are not empowered to collaborate or take initiative to solve problems.  Everyone waits for a crisis, for management to swoop in and lead the firefighting.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Travel consultant 4 salaries reported	$50,500 per year
Marketing intern 6 salaries reported	$22.17 per hour
Senior analyst 5 salaries reported	$76,600 per year
Business development executive 3 salaries reported	$49,833 per year
Marketing analyst 3 salaries reported	$81,000 per year

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