Vanguard IT is more like a political campaign party than a technology division
Pros
It used to be a great company that rewarded people for their true performance and innovation. Today ..Wanna slack off? Yes, that is a safer way of working there Today. If you are bored, How about spending some time to lunch with your best friends at work and network with managers that who were your bosses or your buddies that will truly help to keep your job safe and even get you promoted. Did I forget to mention the work-life-balance policy? Yes, Vanguard does still have decent work-life-balance policy. You may only need to show up in office two days a week ( please use that two days strategically by scheduling frequent long lunches to strengthen your network). If you play the work-life-balance card smoothly, you will be able to work from home three days a week while almost doing nothing. The current Vanguard IT culture breeds a whole group of "street smart technical" people plain do nothing and that's fine as long as they are good at saying 'great place to work' in the annual Gallup survey and having tons of "best" friends at work. However, there are also stories about people got terminated after they had cancer or took paid time off frequently in a short time period when their family had emergence needs. The conflicting pictures and stories about work-life-balance policy are THE evidence showing the disqualification of many Vanguard IT managers and their lack of good judgement.
Cons
Vanguard IT becomes incredibly political. It doesn't matter the hard work that you put in and/or how innovative or efficient your technical idea can be. Fiefdoms under certain favored managers seem to be encouraged, and political game-playing is at the highest I've ever seen. The best senior technical people have fled, and those stay & close to the retire age are in danger of being terminated and/or managed out if they were too naive to see the reality. The quality /creativity the senior technical people can bring to the table will not be rewarded unless they are willing to participate in the political game-playings in the office and there is a polished word called "influential" cycling in IT to encourage people to be politically correct and play political games at all levels. If you are too honest in IT field and point out issues or defects bluntly (even if you provide a solution of how to improve the process and/or fix the problem), you need to watch out since you are in danger of being "viewed" by your manager as not being a team player (because you were probably too bluntly to point out the issue when everyone sees no issue till it hits the production). The manager has all the freedom to report you to HR for any technical debate you may have and put you on review for having a gap of not being influential and/or not being a team player. Once you were put on reviews as such, your manager earns his/her power of terminating you. So being tip-toed in Vanguard IT is more important than being innovative or caring too much of improving the process. Those few experienced senior technical crew who remain that aren't interested in management positions are increasingly encouraged to walk out the door as well - particularly if they are, shall we say, of a certain age. I've observed more than one case of someone in their 40s/50s being reviewed as a crucial contributor the company couldn't do without one month and totally worthless/in danger of termination the next. It seems too coincidental to believe upper management isn't the source of this direction. Implementing good technical solutions become literally impossible because there are red tapes everywhere and disqualified IT crew & contractors everywhere. The intensive amount of red tapes are mainly generated by the disqualified IT managers, and at least 50% IT managers are disqualified and have almost no clue of what are going on technically. Building red types are the defense mechanic built by the disqualified IT managers, making it easier for them to keep the "powers" and control safely. The high percentage of disqualified IT staff/contractors were caused by the similar political game-playings among the IT managers. The IT crew/contractors are no longer hired/promoted by their technical skills and/or qualifications but mainly by their connections and how good they are at networking. The official polished recommendations for such IT crew/contractors are "they are great team players and wonderful in client and relationship management." In Sum, Vanguard IT is becoming such a disgraceful place for truly IT professionals. Unless the executives in Vanguard realize what is going on in IT and shake it up, Vanguard IT will hurt their bottom line. In fact, there are already negative signs shown by the Vanguard IT incompetency. Vanguard used to praise itself as the lower cost provider. Their competitors, such as Charles Schwab, Fidelity and TD, are offering similar or lower cost for the same category of investment and provide more practical features from their websites.
