TD Ameritrade Employee Reviews about "pay"

Pros

Good benefits and insurance coverage; cost to employee for insurance isn't exactly cheap, but very good coverage. Multiple schedules/shifts to choose from in this position, nice co-workers, company offers voluntary time off, and management encourages and facilitates lateral and upward movement.

Cons

The worst part of this position is the clients. You will talk to multiple unreasonable, extremely rude, senile, and even mentally unstable clients every shift, some will yell at and berate you. This is the self-directed side of the business, so no advisors on these accounts to help out filter out the crazy. During tax season, you'll take 50-90 calls per day; back-to-back calls. You sit at a small desk in a crowded row and don't interact much with your co-workers, especially during high call volumes. No assistant managers on the team to help associates on the phones; head manager is more big picture. All help to the associates is via instant message with an internal group, which is tedious, slow, inefficient, and frustrating to both associate and client. Also very disappointing training program. So many important/frequent calls and system navigation not covered sufficiently during training. Need more shadowing, listening to actual calls, even if pre-recorded, and better explanation and practice of systems. And pay is too low; other companies and even departments within TDA pay more to licensed associates at this experience level than this department. Ultimately, this is a pay your dues kind of role, if you can put up with it for 6-12 months until you move on to something. Too demoralizing to stay in this role long-term.

Pros

It has a great culture and can be a fun place to work.

Cons

The pay is really bad. Management doesn't value past experiences or level of education. They just recently reduced the pay and several employees are now looking to leave the department or company. It's unfortunate. The pay used to be great but they seem to want to cut bonuses and replace the people that leave with lower paid employees. - You get what you pay for. One particular bonus was cut in half which most employees found outrageous.

Pros

The pay is probably okay compared with industry average but that is also changing with the merger. Bonuses are being treated very differently and it's not in a good way right now. That may change in the future with some kind of salary restructuring. We don't know. Some managers are great, some not so much. Your experience as an employee is largely going to depend on your manager, though with the work from home environment it has less impact than before. Best part about the job is that once you clock out you do not have to think about work until you have to clock in again. It's normally a good work life balance. Most of the people I've worked with have been great and they do seem to take diversity and inclusion seriously at least with posters and events. The office was relaxed (it's getting hard to remember after working from home for so long) and if work is particularly difficult for some reason they normally give some free food at some point. Good dental, medical, vision, and 401k benefits. You can get promoted a few ranks up fairly quickly but then you pretty much seem to either become a manager or stay where you are.

Cons

You will be verbally abused by clients especially when there are issues or volatility. There was a very bad stretch for months last year. Mental health takes a hit after a while. You only get 4 therapy sessions before you have to start working through insurance so use those sparingly. Sometimes action is taken against the client but unless it's a racial slur there isn't a guarantee. Gender based bias is mostly, but not always shut down. Some managers expect you to put up with more than others. If you're a female and the client demands you transfer them to a male representative that may happen. If you have an accent, particularly an Asian or Indian accent, you will probably have a much worse experience at least when you are in general investor services. If you work through electronic communication then that won't be an issue. It can be difficult to get days off, but most managers will help you out. There are periods of being nearly bored because there are so few clients reaching out and we are overstaffed or there are times like now when volume is absolutely unmanageable and they removed all backup help. The work experience is very inconsistent and staffing decisions are not very rational.

Pros

Good place to get your licensing and start out in the industry. Look at it as a launching pad to start out.

Cons

The pay is average and promotions aren't the easiest to come by at first. Not always the most challenging position either.

Pros

Once you pass your series licenses, it is pretty difficult to get fired because they need people with licenses. They promote from within and there is a lot of opportunity for lateral movement within the company and across different departments

Cons

There is literally zero training and procedural policies change weekly. Zero clarity in terms of expectations, with emphasis on unrealistic goals Lots of drama in the office and tremendous amount of micromanagement because the managers have nothing better to do and are generally sitting on their computers browsing the internet. Constant talk of outsourcing so there is low morale. High turnover Terrible work/life balance, with the expectation that you will work overtime every time they are in need of it, regardless of your desire to. Very low pay for the amount of stress and pressure.

Pros

If you have been with the company for a few years the pay is acceptable. Good hardworking people below the director level Good place to start

Cons

Micromanaged-You are expected to talk constantly about your productivity (total calls and total sales leads). Your numbers are posted every day on a grease board for all in the call center to see. And you can end up on reports sent up to the Managing Director level should your productivity drop below certain levels. No real empowerment. If you have ideas, they will be put into an electronic suggestion box but you may never hear about them again. Your ideas are turned over to others for evaluation and resolution. Every year the demands for more productivity are increased. Getting a lateral move or promotion outside the call center is extremely difficult because you almost never interact with outside departments.

Pros

Decent pay and benefits. Great work-life balance

Cons

Pay is lower than peers. Leadership inhibits innovation and hampers employee advancement. HR and management go out of their way to make it difficult to receive a promotion or pay bump.