What it does: Mastercard is an American financial services company offering payment processing services for debit, credit, or prepaid cards that carry their brand.
Mission: We work to connect and power an inclusive digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible.
Best known for: Their red and orange logos emblazoned on debit and credit cards.
Size & presence: 24,000 employees across 84 locations worldwide.
The good bits: Mastercard is one of the major payment processing service companies in the world, operating in nearly every country on Earth—making it a great place to start your career in the finance industry if you’re interested in working in an international environment.
The not-so-good bits: Can be slow to make decisions or adapt to sudden changes in the industry.
Before becoming an independent business entity, Mastercard was originally a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that have issued its branded cards. The brand itself, however, was born as a foil to what was then called BankAmericard (now known as VISA, which until now remains its major competitor).
Karl H. Hinke, a senior executive at Marine Midland Bank, was the man who was behind the idea of creating a cooperative with other financial institutions in the U.S. in 1966 called the Interbank Card Association; setting the first stage for Mastercard to become a major payment processor.
The brand was only known as MasterCard in 1979 after it was abbreviated from “Master Charge: The Interbank Card”, and later on it became known as just “Mastercard”. Since its year of inception, Mastercard has continued to expand its operational scope and now has become one of the world’s leading payment processors.
One of the things that Mastercard seems to highlight in its U.S. office is work-life balance, with a special emphasis on giving more workplace benefits that parents would appreciate. And it seems that many of its past and current employees agree if Glassdoor reviews are any indication. The company also puts a lot of value on volunteering, even giving employees paid leave for time spent doing charitable work.
Mastercard has several programs intended for recent university or college graduates in the U.S. These programs are Mastercard Launch and Mastercard’s Management Associate Program. The former is intended for Bachelor’s degree holders while the latter is for MBA degree holders. Both programs last 18 months, and individuals who are accepted into the program will be rotated throughout several departments in the company.
College and university students can also gain work experience at Mastercard. The company has openings for internship positions available year-round for college or university degree holders with a minimum GPA of 3.0.
The recruitment process at Mastercard may differ depending on the roles you’re applying for. Despite this, the initial part is usually the same—you’ll have to submit an application for the role you’re interested in through their career page. Then, you might have to face several rounds of interviews, which could be a technical interview, a case interview, a product question interview—and many more job-role-specific interviews depending on the position you’re applying for.
Aside from that, there would also be interviews with future team members and your team leader. If you pass all of these rounds, an offer will be made.
All internships at Mastercard are paid, and you can expect to earn around $50,000 to $70,000 per year as an intern there, depending on the role that you’re hired for. If you’re hired at the Associate level—and thus were accepted in one of the early career programs that Mastercard operates—you can expect to make between $70,000 to $100,000 per year.
Aside from that, Mastercard also offers other benefits aside from salary, such as flexible work arrangements, 16-week paid parental leave, up to $5,000 scholarships for children, volunteer incentive programs, and annual educational reimbursements.
Mastercard has a lot of ongoing charitable initiatives under its belt, including one that is operated by its Center for Inclusive Growth. Many of its programs are related to financial inclusion, women empowerment, and supporting small businesses in developing countries.
Mastercard has been involved in several antitrust investigations in Europe between the 2010s and 2020s, with the most recent being a February 2021 report released by UK’s regulatory body for payment processors and gateways. PSR, the name of the regulatory body, discovered that Mastercard, alongside other payment processors “have engaged in anti-competitive behavior by agreeing not to compete or poach each other’s clients.” As a result, Mastercard, all pay, and PFS agreed to pay £32 million in fines.