Pros
Stifel offers an introduction to how a basic financial firm works, presents thousand of examples of what poor management looks like, and offers hundreds of examples of how archaic methods create a dystopian environment in an office setting. Stifel also pays slightly more than working in retail.
Cons
Stifel is a company embedded in old methodology, with many of their home office managers grossly under qualified for their current positions. Many do not even possess an associates degree and lack any and all professionalism and talent to conduct their jobs in an effective manner. The senior management at the home office in content to follow a work-flow order from the 1980s rather than take appropriate steps to modernize. The home office is normally a place of entry level employment at a company, but not at Stifel. You are required to be more educated than the director and assistant director of operations to get an interview, but you will not be promoted out of the basic office despite your education and Series 66/7 license. They view all employees as fungible, and remain grossly under qualified and intellectually unable to foster and grow any internal talent. This will likely reach a critical mass point when other firms hire away the good talent. Stifel requires internal promotions to be approved by the losing body, and the assistant director of operations routinely denies internal promotions outside of the back office despite the employee taking the position for a substantial raise. No formal training has been developed, and he internal manuals in departments conflict with each other. Stifel frequently has unlicensed employees handle business and trade they should not be covering, instead turning the other way to get things done. This is not a company to work for on any level. Once the breaking points in personnel hit, they will lose all support and be left with no way to snipe employees from other firms as Stifel pays far below industry standards.