Would have given ZERO stars if I could - Collections Specialist Discover Employee Review

1.0
9 Oct 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, even if you only work 30 hours a week. Benefits start from day one, including medical, dental, vision, and 401k.

Cons

Recruiters and HR are very misleading about what the job actually requires and what the expectations are. Once training starts, your job description changes. The job is WAY more sales/money driven than they lead you to believe. I was hired for the collections dept and went in knowing there would be a high expectation to bring in payments/money, however, the company culture was much more careless than I anticipated. They don't care if they help people in bad financial situations (as they lead you to believe), and you have no opportunity to work with customers in a positive environment to help them and still do your job, you are just supposed to snake money from people whether they have it to give or not. Also, training was incredibly boring, the first week felt like the first week of kindergarten - because that's how they treat employees. I think the one hour training on how to use our employee badges at the front doors was highly insulting. And you are reminded on more than an hourly basis that you are not allowed to be late or be sick - no exceptions. The work schedule is also misleading, as it would seem like a good idea to have a flex schedule and choose what time of day to work. However, the schedule is actually never set and can change from week to week. And for those on a fulltime-flex schedule, you sometimes only work 20 hours a week, which really lowers your paycheck.

Explore other reviews about Discover

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The best company I have ever worked for.

Cons

No cons for me besides the merger

5.0
28 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

One of the most significant advantages of interning at Discover is the opportunity to work with massive, high-stakes financial datasets within a highly collaborative and mentorship-driven culture. Because the company manages millions of consumer accounts, you gain direct experience in how data-driven decisions impact risk management, credit modeling, and fraud detection in real time. The environment is known for being supportive of early-career professionals, offering structured learning paths and exposure to modern cloud-native infrastructures like AWS. Furthermore, the company’s strong focus on work-life balance and a clear pipeline for converting interns to full-time roles makes it an excellent "foot in the door" for anyone looking to build a career in fintech.

Cons

On the other hand, the primary drawback often stems from the inherent bureaucracy and heavy regulation of the banking industry, which can lead to slower project lifecycles and "red tape." You may find that a significant portion of your time is spent on repetitive data cleaning and maintaining legacy reporting systems rather than building the cutting-edge predictive models you might expect. Additionally, because Discover is a massive organization, your scope of work can sometimes feel siloed, making it difficult to see the end-to-end impact of your analysis across different departments. Finally, the current landscape of the industry means that internal shifts or large-scale corporate restructuring can occasionally lead to uncertainty regarding team directions or long-term project stability.

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