Pros
In some ways I am glad I started my career here. This company set the bar extremely low for what to expect from company culture, management/leadership and compensation, that it makes almost any other company seem like heaven. I don’t have a lot of positives to convey about my time at Vanguard. I did enjoy the people, everyone has a sense of unity because our job and the resources to do our job were horrible. Paid training for the series exams were great. I would strongly recommend getting those licenses and leaving right away, because in all honesty, you may lose some of that knowledge because you don’t use it to do the job. PTO is nice, if you can get it approved. There is a ‘lottery’ for the days falling before or after a holiday, your likelihood of getting those is extremely slim.
Cons
Here are just a few. There are multiple other topics I could touch on in this section, but just continue to scroll up or down and you will come across them. HR lying – On the job positing I applied to, the role was described with buzz words like, Investment Management, Portfolio Management, Project Management etc. and that could not have been further from the truth. There was nothing mentioned about this being a straight up call center. I also believe that HR writes some of these really short, vague, positive review on this website. Job itself (brokerage investment professional) - One great description is a modern day sweat shop. It is the exact same thing everyday, taking 40-50 phone calls from old people who don’t know how to work a computer or read a form. The conversations you have are monotonous, less than 5% of your calls are truly finance or investment related. They are usually around problems that are due to the outdated technology, incorrect paperwork, or screw ups by your co-workers. In addition to that, you are tied to a strict schedule and every minute of it is monitored. Micro-management - You are only allowed off the phone for 30 minutes for break and 60 minutes for lunch. And that 30 minutes cannot be used in more than 5 minute increments or you will be talked to by your manager. If you go over those 30 or 60 minutes, you will also be talked to by your manager. And if you take too much time between the end of one phone call and the beginning of another (>60 seconds), you will also be talked to by your manager.