Edward Jones Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Edward Jones

Pros – Management stays off your back as long as you are hitting your numbers. You are truly on your own, but plenty of support is there if you want it.

Cons – Rigid field supervision policies, far exceeding SEC regulations. They seem to question a lot of moves you make (trying to make sure it is not being done in the name of making commission).

Advice to Senior Management – Spread the starting salary over more than one year. 12 months is not enough time to build a business and be straight commission.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Edward Jones

Pros – The training to get your licenses is top notch. If you don't know how to sell, you will definitely learn and use what you learn immediately. There is a lot of freedom to create your own schedule and no one bothers you when you meet your numbers. Very strong culture and fellow co-workers are very helpful. The best place to start out in financial services.

Cons – You work by yourself quite a bit. Your success is soley based upon your ability to get people to trust you and give you large sums of money. The financial products are very limited and the firm is very conservative. Not a place for stock traders. In order to make it you must find people with large amounts of money and can be challenging to position yourself as an expert when you are just starting out.

Advice to Senior Management – Management has been great and the firm has kept its core values for over 80 years. Give advisors more training on how to position themselves better with clients and prospects.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Edward Jones

Pros – Training and support to get you licenced and prospecting for clients is great
All local management is on a volunteer basis so you get to learn from those that want to teach you
Run and operate your own office
Women do very well here due to the nature of how Edward Jones solicits business

Cons – Literally go door to door in neighborhoods trying to find clients.
If you do not do this everyday for the first 3-5 years you will not make it.
Buy and hold philosophy for clients is more buy and ignore.
The production requirements force new financial advisors to sell upfront single commision products instead of building a book with managed accounts.
There is more emphasis on recuriting new advisors than training current advisors

Advice to Senior Management – Spend as much time building up the Financial Advisors you have instead of asking them weekly to recruit new advisors.

Former Employee – worked at Edward Jones

Pros – Superior Training program to receive necessary licenses. Great support and follow up. Training team is encouraging and motivating. Work with you to assure the best opportunities for success.

Cons – Great place to work. Requires self motivated and disciplined person to be a successful financial sales person. The expectation of a new trainee are challenging though ultimately designed to create a successful start as an FA.

Advice to Senior Management – The management has got it right. I believe the biggest challenge is not the managements approach though being able to successfully find the right person for the job.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Edward Jones

Pros – Edward Jones home office is a great place to work for job security and if you want to work for a company that has a good reputation.

Cons – Edward Jones home office employees are under paid, receive poor benefits, low merit increases, lack opportunities for advancement, lack training, receive little guidance from supervisors, and are not compensated or recognized for degrees including bachelor's degrees or master's degrees.

Advice to Senior Management – Respect employees, recognize employees for their ideas and contributions, provide guidance to employees for growth opportunities, familiarize yourself with leadership training.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Edward Jones

Pros – Unlimited Earning Potential, Incentive Trips, Running your own practice

Cons – Lack of product training in beginning. Rely on testing new FA's on ability to cold call (prospect) without any training on investments. Leaves trainees with little confidence on the door step.

Advice to Senior Management – Moving into urban areas may need a new approach. In todays age of Identity theft and scams seems like people are reluctant to talk about financial matters with a new FA with no credentials, ie business cards, office, listing on web page.

Former Employee – worked at Edward Jones

Pros – Edward Jones is an incredible opportunity for people that are self driven and motivated. There is unlimited earning potential with a schedule that you set yourself. No need for time off requests or vacation days. You work... you get paid, well.

Cons – If you are not disciplined, this is not the job for you. You are responsible for all goals and production. It is 100% commission, fee, and bonus based. This can be very stressful when things are slow.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to improve how FA's get started in the business. Starting with $0 under management is very stressful and discouraging. It is a motivator, but it can break you early on.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Edward Jones

Pros – Ability to make your own hours, good benefits, opportunity to be well compensated, own office, paid for training and to take securities tests.

Cons – Little to no assistance once you begin selling. Face a lot of rejection going door to door. NO help picking out a good market or help developing it. Little understanding for unique problems, strictly based on production numbers. Would not recommend for younger professional without a long list of previous contacts from another job such as insurance that you can bring with you.

Advice to Senior Management – Give more support to new hires. They should work out of an office with an existing broker so they can get ideas, receive timely advice, have an appropriate working environment, and have assistance learning administrative tasks. Also, provide more financial and less sales training. The more you know the easier it is to sell, and the less it feels like sales rather than being knowledgeable enough to really help. Also provide better dissemination of research and how to use it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Edward Jones

Pros – EDJ has the most innovative tools at hand and great training for new BOA's. I have a gret FA and she lets me handle as much of the business side of things as possible. I have truly enjoyed working for Edward Jones.

Cons – Getting started can be quite overwhelming. You must be patient with others and yourself in order to succeed. It takes at least a month to make the job feel like your own.

Advice to Senior Management – I feel that management is on the right track. They do not micro-manage, they let you take the lead and go with it. To me they are doing a fine job.

Former Employee – worked at Edward Jones

Pros – Full Autonomy, it's your business, it's all up to you to make it or throw in the towel. Great home office support, good training.

Cons – Door to door prospecting, door to door prospecting, and door to door prospecting,

Advice to Senior Management – I like the company and I like their mission statement, I'm just not cut out to do door to door prospecting.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend