E*TRADE Financial Reviews

Pros

Nice physical work environments. No weekends. Decent benefits. Not overly difficult. Don't ask for too much.

Cons

Variable compensation package is impossible to discern where you should emphasize. It is so complicated nobody it has no impact on productivity. They don't treat people with a whole lot of respect. Very negative environment-always looking for metrics to punish you with rather than reward.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop looking for ways to punish.

Pros

Benefits, Knowledge gained about trading.

Cons

Micro Management could be reduced significantly.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more consistent.

Pros

By far the benefits are the best part of the job. 3 weeks paid vacation, 1 week sick paid vacation off the bat.

Cons

The work can be boring for somebody looking for excitement from their job. Very monotonous schedules... which can be your friend at times, and depressing other times. Soft selling is part of the job description but no compensation/bonus comes from it.

Advice to Senior Management

Management was fine. Can't ask for much more. Good people.

Pros

Company has flexible working schedule to meet personal issues. It also has pretty comprehensive benefits package compared to some of the other companies.

Cons

Senior management lacks communication with employees. Some people seem to advance because of their ties with upper management instead of their performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to have more open communication with employee and reward those who are deserving instead of people who just have connections with upper management.

Pros

This is an innovative company.

Cons

Other tha the trading platforms, other area are archaic.

Advice to Senior Management

Each department should be able to take calls for their areas of expertise. Some RM's cannot explain margin calls- and they can't transfer complicated margin issues to specialists. Use the Fidelity Investments model where each department specialists are thoroughly trained, take calls relating to their areas of expertise. This improves customer satisfaction .

Pros

entry level get series 7 and 63 licenses. good training. good experience in customer service. great if you are looking to get into sales. opportunity for future licenses (series 4, 24, ect.). good stepping stone (currently looking for another job)

Cons

micromanagement. breaks, lunch and start time are recorded to the second. compensation is low. will take years to earn decent living at FSR level. you potential ceiling will end at being either sales RM or a manager. creates a lot of turnover. currently looking for another job after 3 years, which is usually the case (which isn't a necessarily a con)

Advice to Senior Management

manager should stick up for their reps more. be more of an advocate.

Pros

Young managers indicate the ability for in house advancement. Relatively high end phone center job which required experience in financial services (as well as Series 7 registration). Still there are occasions for the unreasonable calls from customers who blame you for some mistake they have made. Company did make an effort to provide some outlets from the stress of making calls with a nice break area with TV, wii and ping pong tables.

Cons

Young managers often are not experienced in managing people. Tend to be too defensive and rely to too heavily on call statistics. Senior management seldom on site. Relatively low compensation considering the skills and knowledge required for this job. However due to cost pressures, firm was moving toward lower cost call centers in other parts of the country and overseas.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management should consider the quality as well as the quantity of calls handled by CSR in the call centers. Should look at the example of Zappo to see how a call center should be managed.

Pros

In Alpharetta, you get sponsored for the Series 7 and 63. Get those licenses and then you're free to go anywhere else in the country and make money. You also get to learn a lot about the market. Also by looking at customers accounts and your calls with them, you see what NOT to do! They are good about letting you take time off EXCEPT for during tax season which is Jan til Apr 15. Sometimes it's not even busy and they say no.

Cons

Eliminate the "Command Center." It's a room built in Alpharetta, GA with the sole purpose of micromanaging call center reps. If a rep isn't back on the phone promptly after a phone call, then the Command Center questions the manager of the rep, then the manager questions the Team Lead, then the Team Lead questions the rep. Meanwhile the rep could be busy trying to solve a problem for a customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of that whole "Command Center". It's such a joke. Get rid of reps in Manila except to do simple password resets or operations where they don't interact with customers. The customers don't like outsourcing, especially in this economic climate. Also many of the reps in Manila are kind but they are very robotic, sticking totally the script and lacking emotion.

Pros

The bonus structure rewards performance. Salary is consistent with industry standards. There are opportunities for advancement. It is an innovative company.

Cons

For a company that espouses technology and innovation, some departments are archaic, with processes that require manual calculations froth with human errors.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep technolgy in the forefront not only in the active trader brokerage business but for all business units.

Pros

Laid back work environment. Great people to work with. Good to work in an innovative and entrepreneurial style work environment

Cons

The pay is not good at all. There is not much room for advancement. The company is trying to turn things around

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees more assistance in advancing their careers. Base more of the salary on performance and pay more for performance