There have been several reviews written here that tell you all you need to know about this company, I will add my two cents. First off, the "leadership" the company promotes. The fact is there is no leadership at Vanguard. Supervisors are not put in their position to inspire or motivate, they are there to tow the company line. Team "Leaders" (I hate to use the term leader so I'll just refer to them as TLs), are cookie cutter puppets, as there is absolutely no diversity of thought and they do as they are programed to do. They all use the same buzz phases (low hanging fruit, "I have an ASK of you", circle back, dive down deeper, lets table this, big win, etc), they put donating and supporting the United Way above the operation, and the majority of them have little to no knowledge of the job their subordinates do. For a financial company, the knowledge of finance demonstrated by management is embarrassing. As explained in several reviews, more and more TLs come from the VADP program to save costs. The majority of these people I would not follow out of a burning building.
Second point, there is no accountability. This is actually a good thing for the multitude of mediocre people there who contribute nothing to the company but are allowed to stay for one reason or another. This company is held up by the Mutual Funds. If the company was dependent on the other areas (Part Services, Brokerage, retail ops, advice, etc) to keep going, the company would fold in a heartbeat due to absolutely horrible service and incompetent employees that are not dealt with. The reason for this inaction goes back to point one: leadership. The TLs/ Line manager lack the courage to deal with this. To their defense, those above them are so terrified of a law suit that they are fine with the company being supported by a few people while the non contributors slack. In fact, I know a line manager who was demoted two pay grades down because he took a stand against a lazy, useless employee.
Third point, the promotion/appraisal system is rigged. People are not promoted/ appraised because of ability, knowledge or leadership ability. They are picked based off of race, gender, religion, dedication to the United Way, how well you are liked by TLs and above, etc. I know for a fact, that a principal took a group of TLs aside and instructed them to change a mediocre associates rating to "Distinguished" (the highest mark) based solely off of the persons race. I have seen first hand jobs going to a specific gender because of "diversity" and not ability. If you wave the United Way flag and say all the buzz word the TLs say, you are promoted first and appraised higher. This is one of the reasons you will see so many inept people is positions that require ability.
Forth, the work environment is far from professional. If you walk around some of the buildings, it looks like a kindergarten should be taught there. I would be embarrassed to walk a client around. This is actually a way to score points with the TLs though. You can be severely lacking in professional knowledge and ability, but if you are good with construction paper and like "arts and crafts" time, you will be rated higher and promoted before someone is who competent in the job and focuses solely on their job.
One of the few good TLs I had at Vanguard told me it is an ok place to start, but horrible place to stay. I have seen over many years the deterioration of a place that at one time I really liked to work at. Don’t get me wrong, there are actually some very good people who work at Vanguard. They are in the minority though.
