Pros
- They get you licensed with series 7 and 63 and have a pretty good program to do it -Benefits package is decent, but you’re not vested till after SIX years (sometbing you likely won’t be around for)
Cons
- First of all, this is the absolute WORST environment for a young and hungry college grad. The recruiters sold me on a client focused job where you’d have your own book of business and would be helping clients with their investments. This cannot be further from the truth. What this and most of the roles in the Scottsdale location are, is just a glorified call center. You’ll be chained to your desk where every second of your life is micromanaged down to the second (you even have to budget your 30 mins of break to go to the bathroom) and you’ll be taking anywhere from 40-60 calls a day. 99.9% of these calls have absolutely nothing to do with investments or the knowledge you gained in the 7 and 63, but rather require you to walk people through using the website or telling disgruntled clients that they’ll have to fill out yet another form. -The compensation is atrocious compared to the industry and when you take into account the work that you end up having to do. Even when moving up, at Vangaurd you’ll always be severely underpaid. -Speaking of moving up, recruiters and managers alike will sell the idea of development plana and internships, but you’ll be surprised to find that those either have been dismantled or just mysteriously don’t ever post. The full year time in job requirement creates an environment where high performers who want to succeed eventually have the life and drive drained out of them by the absolutely demoralizing call center environment. Turnover is MASSIVE. Several people had quit around me because the job is so awful. 6-12 months being the average tenure for this role is a BAD SIGN take it as a warning -During the recruitment process you’ll be promised regular meetings with your supervisor to discuss career pathing, best practices etc. But what this ends up being is your TL listening to two of your calls and then berating you for not developing a best friendship with the client during your 2 min tech support convo. I have had maybe 1 actual one on one meeting with my TL to discuss things that are important to me and that was months ago. Not to mention my TL as well as the ones around me were rarely if ever available for help, and when they weren’t in some meeting they would be gathered around a desk or in the HUB laughing loudly and feeling great about themselves, while we were busy handling call after call after call. -They offer a generous 3 weeks of vacation with the option to buy an additional week, but good luck ever getting to use it. PTO requests rarely if ever get approved and if you want to use it around a holiday? Good luck they let about 10 people total take the PTO and it’s a “lottery” system. Take a day that isn’t scheduled because you’re sick? You’ll get an occurance. -Their claim to fame is not being like the “other guys” and offering low expenses to clients and no commission so you aren’t selling clients on things they don’t need. The “other guys” are catching up in terms of expenses and guess what? You’re still instructed to sell clients on things like advice services, but the big thing is you get absolutely nothing for it. Vangaurd is just as deceptive and driven by profit as the “other guys.” -Low performers can skate by here as long as they “drink the kool-aid” and get buddy buddy with their TL and others. There is absolutely no motivation to work hard because guess what? The guy across from you who is rude to clients and hardly does anything? You two get treated the EXACT same way. You’ve provided 5 PAS leads? That’s fine you’ll still be micromanaged and treated the same as the guy who hasn’t gotten any. -The claim proudly a strong work life balance and a 37.5 hour work week, but what they don’t tell you is that doesn’t factor in your hour unpaid lunch and that they will take away that lunch at any point if they think they need the people. You also have to be logged into your computer BEFORE your shift starts to not be considered late to jump on the phones. THIS IS ILLEGAL, companies have been sued multiple times over for practices like this. -They make everyone new work 11:30-8p/10:30-7p. This is something I wasn’t told until after I had excepted my offer. -The most important thing to note is that anyone who is driven and wants to be successful should STAY AWAY. This place is a toxic wasteland that’ll suck out any resemblance of ambition that you have. The work is absolutely draining and soul crushing. This is not a finance job, it’s tech support. If anything, get licensed and leave. Go somewhere that’ll pay you what you’re worth and reward high performers.