Edward Jones Interview Questions & Reviews in Canada

Interviewed Jul 2009 in Nanaimo, BC (Canada) (took 4+ weeks)

The interview process for a new Financial Advisor at Edward Jones is very thorough and includes about 4 interviews.

The first interview was just a quick information session on the phone with a hiring specialist from EJ. A package is emailed to you, and then you are to complete an online questionnaire in order to determine your selling abilities and general suitability for the position.

Next step is a more detailed telephone interview that lasts about an hour and is mainly behavioral in nature. It can be tricky, and they definitely dig into your answers, so be prepared to back your answers up with actual situations.

After this, if you pass, you are put in touch with a FA in your area and set up to meet with him or her for about an hour. This is your chance to ask all the questions you have about the position. I think also that the FA is supposed to do an evaluation for EJ at this time, but they don't tell you that. My advice - Be very professional at this time and impress the FA, as I'm sure he or she reports back to EJ with his thoughts on you.

After this, you are asked to pick your territory or region that you would like to work in. They assist you in this process. Once your area is decided on, you are to go out in the field and do a 1 week exercise that simulates the type of cold-calling you will be doing when setting up your new client base.

If you succeed in the exercise, you are put on to the next step which is the final face-to-face interview. If you are successful in the interview, an offer will be extended at this point.

If you make it to the final interview, relax because you have made it over the hill. The toughest interview is the behavioral telephone interview and once you pass that, you just must prove your ability in the field exercise.

WARNING: There is a very thorough background investigation that will be conducted on you at some point during this process. It is a very detailed investigation, so it is done somewhere near the end of the interviewing process as it costs EJ $$ and they don't want to waste their money on people early on in the hiring process. I made it through all the interviews with flying colors and while deciding on a region to conduct my field exercise, I was contacted by the Background Investigation Department and notified that I was no longer a candidate for the job due to some missed payments on Student Loans last year. As a matter of policy, EJ does not hire people with Credit History - No exceptions, believe me I tried!

I was a prime candidate for this position, super excited and motivated to build a successful branch with EJ, but the policy of EJ to not hire candidates with credit history prevented me from doing so. EJ made a big mistake.