The Vanguard Group Reviews

Pros

Learning opportunities and initial advancement are fantastic..

Cons

Once you are in a position you enjoy however, management insists that you change positions ever few years.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees more about what motivates them. Morale is/was horrible when I left. Also, salary needs to be improved for long term employees. Benefits eat into too much of the pay, and increases have not kept up with the expenses expected of employees.

Pros

The ability to buy more vacation time was nice.

Cons

The morale was terrible,management was poor. Favoritism was obvious towards upper mgt who had family members on the team.

Advice to Senior Management

The company is not the same since Mr Bogle was pushed out. The company is more like cult.

Pros

The benefits and contribution to employee 401k plans are fantastic. The campus and buildings are very nice, if not cult like. At first blush, the employees and management appear positive and professional.

Cons

There is really no one in the building to aspire to be, or to emulate.

The parking lot is filled with beater cars, and the employees dress quite poorly.

There is passive aggressive pushback from the faux intellectuals who call themselves "management", and general leeriness of knowledge and experience.

It is a collection of financial "professionals" who know nothing about the financial world outside of the next form they are to fill out.

Would be the perfect place for public school teachers and washed up insurance salesmen looking to make a transition and eat a good meal twice a year.

Advice to Senior Management

It is what it is. I understand the business model, and some types of people are more suited to drone work more than others.

But, Vanguard, if you are to take the next step as you appear to want to do, you should think about clearing out the passive aggressive middle "management" from dubious educational and professional backrounds, and upgrading the experience and educational quality of your staff.

Pros

Good place to work for young and fresh graduate. Newly hires already clamoring for next promotion. Good benefits.

Cons

You don't drink their kool aid, your'e done. Too much backstabbing. Worst working environment I ever have.Company values does not match with the employees they hire on the floor(the department I worked was demoralizing). Tenured employees need retraining.Arrogant tenured employees. Zero flexibility at all. Stressfull just to schedule time off alone.

Advice to Senior Management

Replace all your arrogant supervisors and employees. Start fresh. Change the culture on that department. Hire ethical and and people who truly knows their fiduciary duties and who exercise with highest integrity. Your people are rotten.

Pros

Good benefits package although that has declined every year that I have been there.
Good 401 Match... also the 10% that they contribute to your pension on top of your 401k is huge
More then ample time off.
Great employees to work with (non Managers). I met quite a few good friends there
Training is pretty good
Great name to have on a resume. On my search prospective employers liked my 5 years at Vanguard

Cons

-The pay is god awful. I left there making $48,000 as an exempt employ and left for a job making $68,000 with overtime.
-Career progression is non existent.
-Vanguard got rid of their Partnership program where nearly everyone took a pay cut and they sold it to us as if we asked for it.
-Promoting the culture is more important to advancement then doing a good job is.
-It is run much more like a kindergarten then a business. Everything for chili contests to stupid games for the united way
-the past 2 years I have worked for 3 Team Leaders all of which were younger woman who had NO EXPERIENCE in the business. Also all were hired without the staff having the opportunity to interview for them.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward production over culture promoters and cheer leaders

Pros

The company culture is driven toward excellence for all staff with a high level of integrity for the customers' investments. The interactive staff is forward thinking and pushes the boundaries of technology within good usability rules - constantly trying to look ahead to how customers will need to access their money as technology evolves. However, because they also have a print creative dept., the interactive dept. sometimes had to fight some significant battles to educate internally before being allowed to move forward. This process can take time and can frustrate staff - resulting in key personnel departures. This leads to a big learning curve for remaining staff and/or a large workload once projects are approved, but the original deadlines remain. That said, there was so much progress on the education of institutional leadership while I worked there. I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. The (award-winning) print designers also have a hunger for learning interactive - so there's a nice opportunity for knowledge sharing if that's something you enjoy.

Cons

Trying to educate senior staff on good information architecture, usability and interactive design process. There's still a bit of a disconnect, which make managing expectations for interactive design unreasonably compared to print design.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to educate through good architecture and usability - don't cut your conference budget. Let the staff that attend come back and educate those who didn't go. Then rotate these people so everyone is challenged and becomes experienced in teaching expertise.

Pros

Great for long-term, conservative kind of professional who takes direction well.

Cons

Not the place for creatives or out-of-the-box types. Innovative and/or entrepreneurial professionals should steer clear.

Pros

Vanguard's current market position can provide a certain level of job stability; however, this may change when other types of financial institutions (banks, etc.) begin to compete in Vanguard's market (401K, etc.)

Cons

Vanguard has little or no room for career growth for newer hires; there are hundreds of long-term (10+ years) employees that are entrenched in their jobs making it difficult for newer hires to move up the career ladder.

Advice to Senior Management

Give all managers a fixed "term-limit" for being in a management role. This will allow new and fresh ideas to develop and minimize internal polictics.

Pros

You won't beat their benefit package, and they always seem to be hiring (more on that later) so it's good for starting/ending a career

Cons

-Management doesn't give a rat's ass whether you're talented, they care whether or not you're willing to drink the Kool-aid and be a cheerleader for the brand
-Your entire 'career' there depends on 1) getting a popular team leader/manager, and 2) getting said team leader/manager to like you; your metrics aren't worth the paper they're printed on (after they yell at you for using the paper) when it comes to raises/promotions/rewards/ect.
-Some departments feel more like a play pen than a business--we spend more time doing salsa contests than doing our jobs
-The implied threats that come with their campaigns for their chosen causes are downright offensive--they make it clear that they're keeping track of who's throwing in on their campaigns and who isn't

Basically, this is the kind of place that is something of a revolving door....they're always hiring because most people invariably catch on that they're spinning their wheels here after more than a year or so, or just simply refuse to drink the Kool-aid and get drummed out (or made to understand that there's no future there so they leave on their own). Ultimately, Vanguard has to decide whether or not it cares enough to be a great company again, and if it does, it's going to have to change a lot of things from the bottom up.

Advice to Senior Management

Easiest way to sum it up is: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, and institute some real accountability for your lower/middle management ranks

Pros

Good benefits, Nice work enviroment, Management is approachable

Cons

Lower then average industry salary

Advice to Senior Management

Well done on respecting your employees