E*TRADE Financial Reviews

Pros

To get licensed and learn about the securities industry.

Cons

Benefits, ok. Opportunities, very limited.

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Gained good experience
Training was excellent
Colleauges were great

Cons

Pay was not competive with similar positions
Management very hands on - leaves no room for autonomy

Advice to Senior Management

Change the entire model to be more in line with competitors and pay more

Pros

Customers are relatively happy versus a big bank. But seriously, the big banks are VERY incompetent so how hard can it be??? Some good technology but poor hardware to back it up. You can pick up some more brokerage licenses vs. a typical bank. They haven't bounced a paycheck yet. Smaller size means the company is more responsive but not responsive enough versus its even smaller, niche rivals. A competent, all-around retail broker.

Cons

No room for advancement. No feeling of a future at this place. No feeling of accomplishment. Everyone is replaceable. Development of unique skills and/or strengths is not encouraged. I'm basically here to collect a weak paycheck; nothing more, and that really leaves you feeling like you're wasting your time. Darn, I'm bored! Constant concerns over bankruptcy, takeover, are they gonna shut down my office?, is my job gonna be shipped to Manila?, etc. But seriously, what can you do in this terrible economy??? I've seen some very capable people move on. Shabby offices. Decrepit furniture and 10-year old computers. Most of us gather on the weekend to drink and show-up bleary-eyed on Monday morning to start all over again. Is that really any way to end a week??? Numb the pain. Tax season is the pits and is one of the biggest reasons people quit.

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees are bored! You re-hash the same old stuff and claim its new to your customers! They are smarter than that! The baby ads are getting lame. Time for something new. You have no idea of the repressed talent at your fingertips that could be doing so much more. Harness it!

Pros

You receive paid training for Series 7 and 63. They have a higher than average pass rate. The last 5 classes have had 100 percent pass rate.

Cons

You will receive no feed back what so ever regarding your performance unless you are a phone rep and you screw up.

Advice to Senior Management

REWARD the people who are running your teams!! Bringing in treats to meetings doesnt cut it. You have already lost how many leads? And you refuse to do anything about them leaving.

Pros

- Great teamwork within the group.
- Excellent manager who watches out for his employees.
- Interesting technology and projects.
- Great sense of pride in work.
- Great benefits and opportunity to grow your career.
- Rewards are available for those who work hard and earn it.

Cons

- The position is not your typical Security Engineering role. More like Security Tools. Not network heavy like most Security Engineering teams.
- Upper level management throws projects around or stalls/squashes projects randomly
- Lots of politics on larger "Charged" projects that lead to dead-ends or delay/partial implementation.
- No long term security vision from upper management. More plugging the gaps to cover.
- No backup engineer for your projects. That means there is no on-call schedule, you are on-call for your stuff always. *I mention this as a con because it's not the norm. I personally like this better than on-call schedules and instills a sense of "eating your own dog food"
- Management commonly give Production and development much higher priority than Security. Consistently feel like you there because they could not get rid of you (like life insurance. No one want's to pay it, but they do)

Advice to Senior Management

- Develop a long term plan for Security at E*TRADE.
- Place a higher emphasis on Security with projects and peers.
- Highlight the great benefits E*TRADE has. Many employees do not realize how good they are.

Pros

location, schedule, people, experience, benefits

Cons

no room for advancement and little time off

Advice to Senior Management

stop micro managing

Pros

Technology wise, Etrade does try to stay on top of current trend and you will learn quite a bit especially in the open source market.

Cons

The biggest issue at Etrade (Menlo) and the reason for so many people leaving the company lately (or about to leave) is the management team. None of the leaders have a clue on how to manage people. They are very driven people with their own agenda and care less about how the people they manage feel. They are borderline unprofessional people with no sympathy for others. They will drive you down until you quit without remorse if they don't like you, and there is nothing HR can do about it because nobody wants to stand up to them. Those so call "leaders" have been with the company for years, have build an awful reputation, and manage based on fear and reprisal. I have to admit that those people are technically competent and should probably be Architects, but definitely not people manager.

Pros

great place to start in the industry, get your licenses, and get the general process of how a brokerage house works. young management with some experience enables you to learn with them and see errors that you hopefully wont make when you become a manager somewhere else

Cons

related to the above issue with young management. Complete lack of mentoring. You are on your own to learn the ropes of the industry. inexperienced and uneducated. Not too many places for advancement once you learn the basis.

Advice to Senior Management

not much as it seems this is a great strategy to keep people that would otherwise not be employed to their current level anywhere else. This creates a high attrition rate in that these managers with no education or experience know this is a good place to stay and from which to retire. CEO is too new to decide how he's doing but so far he's done a good job.

Pros

have chance to use new and emergent technology

Cons

promotion is hard, quite often they are not base on performance

Advice to Senior Management

talented ppl are leaving , do something to stop it

Pros

Great technology. Great place to work if you seek new challenges. Flexibility.

Cons

Long hours. Pay not great

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more. I liked working there but was offered more money outside