E*TRADE Financial Reviews

Pros

great experience, work related technologies are always being explored for new or innovative ways of doing things.

Cons

hard to get promoted to senior management levels. Often will hire in management rather than promote from within.

Pros

E*Trade was a very polite and respectful place to work, I was happy to be there each day, the pace varied depending on the market conditions/tax season, but it was generally pleasant.

Cons

lack of opportunity for advancement from service to a more strategic role.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more opportunity for movement, lateral or vertical. The FSR role felt disconnected from the rest of the staff, as if it was undeserving of the respect that a operations role might get.

Pros

Overtime available which is nice to make extra money

Cons

Zero career path, can't really get higher than manager.

Advice to Senior Management

It is what it is

Pros

Fair pay stucture.
Benefits from day one.
Pleasant work enviornment

Cons

After mid management advancement limited.

Advice to Senior Management

be better at coaching and mentoring subordinates

Pros

you will learn a lot of new stuff at the first couple of years. generally rewards come to people working hard.

Cons

sometimes people prefer finger-pointing when the issues come up instead of working together to resolve it. also the salary level is under industry average.

Advice to Senior Management

reduce the process that make production cycle inefficient. also should promote people inside company during group reorg instead of bringing new people in.

Pros

Managers are typically young since there is a great deal of attrition of employees. Could be a good place to work if you quickly wanted to rise to a branch manager position just to get some experience. Good for entry level. Decent trade platform, and sales technology (salesforce).

Cons

Terrible communication to employees, in every aspect, which is carried over to clients.
Low compensation, high pressure - compared to industry. Constant damage control, and mixed messages. Long hours are normal in industry, but at ETFC the extra effort doesn't translate to much higher pay. Company often raise sales goals unrealistically high so as not to pay out bonuses. Company has been in financial trouble and getting bad press since 2007.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate better with employees, they understand the company has landed on tough times. But the poor communication does not instill much loyalty, and hence leads to very high attrition and low quality of employees.

Pros

It is right size company.

Cons

Work location is not flexible.

Advice to Senior Management

Fair and transparent are needed

Pros

E*TRADE offers a base salary with slightly below average benefits. You will work 8am to 5pm with optional overtime to increase your bonus and no need to take your work home. It's pretty hard to get fired in most offices unless you do something dumb or are lazy for an extended period of time.

Cons

They are constantly experimenting and end up screwing over the consultants in Sales. They just changed the compensation plan this year and it looks like more than 30% of consultants are getting no bonus for last quarter. I was in the top 20% and my bonus was only $10k for the whole quarter. Many people that are in the top 10% just got lucky with one big lead. Don’t plan to make much more than $65k a year unless you are pretty darn good. If you are amazing you might barely break $100k. Also the 401k match is an awful 2.5% and they give no salary raises at all, no matter how tenured or good you are.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to retain top talent don't take away their leads. Asked your "sales distribution team" or any consultant who hasn't been told by their regional manager to keep their mouth shut; the leads are gone. The best leads are new accounts, rollovers, and TOAs in, not because those leads are easy money, but because money getting moved in to E*TRADE is the most receptive to advice (mutual funds, MIP, and UMA). If you want consultants to sell advice don't take away their best leads.

Even more importantly, don't take away the best leads and double the number of consultants at the same time. We are sitting in an office with twice as many people as we had a year ago and none of us have any leads to call and all of us are starting to simmer. The best of us will be taking jobs at TD, Fidelity, and Schwab in the next year if this crap doesn't change and you will be left with the new people and the underperformers.

Pros

Blend of technology and finance industries has potential for diverse career paths. The employee bank account has no charges for ATM withdrawals from any ATM nationally.

Cons

The company is quite inward looking; slow to pick up industry standards on the technology side, tending more toward in-house innovations. While this has served the company well historically, it limits the potential for employee growth

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to invest in people (training) to drive innovation. Provide opportunities for employees to visit other departments in order to see the impact their work makes to the company.

Pros

The people are passionate, close knit, and have an immense sense of ownership. The immediate management listens well to the employees.

Cons

growth ads bureaucracy. This isn't a fault of the company per say but the reality of SOX. Also due to size, innovation has suffered.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve communication with the employee base. Take risks with development, not with revenue. shut up and listen to the middle and lower tiers.