Pros
see cons section for full review
Cons
I worked at this company for almost 7 years. I’ve seen every aspect of the company, worked with many people and I chose to leave, so I can give you the hard truth here. This is the worst place I have ever worked. First off, you will be getting paid far less than the industry average here. Why tolerate that? Do you think the firm renowned for low pay is going to attract the best talent in the industry? Or the rejects that couldn't cut it elsewhere? By that factor alone, you are guaranteed to be working with peers who are the bottom of the industry barrel and you tarnish yourself and your reputation. This company built itself on low priced index funds. I think we would all agree that those companies you read about in Asia that have suicide nets to prevent employees from jumping are able to keep costs very low. But they aren't the places where you want to work are they? Index funds are also non-managed funds, which means rather than all its competitors that built themselves on smart talented people picking stocks and giving advice, this firm built itself off of what was essentially braindead automated investing. An index fund is a good idea. But it does not require a lot of talent to maintain and you can invest in index funds at any firm. I believed in what the founder John Bogle preached but he has passed away and the company leadership has long since taken itself in new directions. It used to give big bonuses and have a track record of not laying people off. This is no longer true. Recently they rolled off a large amount of workers to a company called infosys. This was an underhanded move to keep their supposed reputation intact by pushing any layoffs to infosys while still selling out their staff. They have fallen far behind the times. Their website and app are very outdated. Until recently you could not even buy or sell stocks through the app. They refused to allow investors to invest in bitcoin which pushed millions of potential customers to competitors like robinhood. They actively discourage day trading and will lock out clients that trade too much. Obtaining a margin account is very difficult vs many competitors. I saw many large corporate clients be lost due to mismanagement. The Chinese and Japanese branches were lost and closed. Whenever I told someone where I worked it was so often met with blank states. Few people have ever even heard of this company that are not in the industry. Notable also depending on your work location, they will treat you like a second class citizen if you are in their AZ or NC locations. Let alone overseas. Much of their philosophy is flawed. They for example claim that since they are not publicly traded they are not accountable to investors. However, this does not provide any benefit to clients. It essentially gives them no oversight or accountability at all since the clients cannot vote or kick out bad executives. They can only close their account and leave. This gives free reign for nepotism and incompetent leadership to thrive. During my time here, I saw many people leaving. Once they got licenses they would jump ship to other more prestigious and higher paying firms. In the last few years I started seeing large amounts of attrition, unrelated to covid related issues. In one role, my team went through three team leaders and three analysts in less than a year. The team was only three people. These are higher level roles, this isn't a burger king where turnover is naturally high. The entire division had a department goal to reduce attrition it had gotten so bad. I saw many people leaving that had been there for 5-10+ years. And the sole reason they all told me they were leaving was unprofessional and disrespectful management. That is also why I ultimately left. I have never worked in such a toxic place. Typically it manifests in passive aggressive behavior. And this wasn't just my last team. It was across many teams. People don't leave good jobs. There is a reason so many have left. When you allow bad behavior to occur, you normalize it and over time it becomes all there is. After accepting a new job elsewhere with a significant raise and seeing how friendly everyone was I realized I had made a mistake staying as long as I did. That I tolerated more than I should have. There is a shift in their culture and sadly this creates a situation where the good people leave and after a while only the rest are left. How you are treated is a big factor in the quality of your life. If you respect yourself and value having a good life, a fulfilled and happy life, then you will not find it here. Leaving this company was the best decision I have ever made and it feels great. I found a job elsewhere with a giant raise and everyone has been so friendly and gracious. It feels like walking out into the sun after being stuck in a basement cellar. You don't have to take my word for it. Research industry pay. Read the other reviews. Look at how terrible this firm rates in employment satisfaction and CEO approval vs the other big firms. It is stark. The only thing this firm is famous for is being cheap. And we all know the dollar store is not where you find quality products. Invest in yourself and look elsewhere. You will be glad you did.