Vanguard Reviews

Pros

Vanguard has an incredible culture with flexible hours. Everyone there actually believes in putting the needs of the investors first. All crew members are willing to help you in any way possible, and I absolutely loved my experience there. I got a ton of exposure to senior leaders and chief officers as well. There were many opportunities to get involved and take on leadership roles.

Cons

There were no negative experiences that I had. They really do a great job taking care of their crew members.

Pros

- Great learning environment - Best training in the industry - Pretty fair work/life balance

Cons

- Hard to move up outside of inbound phone roles - Small improvements that should be simple take forever or are overlooked. - If you’re not in PA it’s harder to move up.

Pros

Tough to get fired Big company so lots of opportunities to move into different departments and areas of the business Solid benefits (10% 401k contribution 6 year vesting, plus 4% dollar for dollar match after first year, health benefits are decent not great) Pays for your licensing Can be a good stepping stone into the industry vanguard is a major name that looks good on a resume You don’t have to take the work home with you. When I clock out I’m done

Cons

Vanguard has transitioned to what they call “new ways of working” it’s a repackaged scrum or agile methodology that you may be familiar with. What this really is a means to micromanage every aspect of your day. They will try to squeeze every last second of productivity out of you. Problem is, is the goals they set are stupid and/or unrealistic and have nothing to do with successfully doing the job. Giving good service or taking care of the clients is now frowned upon a s efficiency is preached. The “leaders” (your supervisors and their boss the line manager) are so incompetent and removed from the role and are literally some of the worst managers at any company I have ever seen. The micromanagement is next level. In the wrong code for more than a minute be prepared to talk about it at your huddle where you have your pathetically incompetent superior have you discuss your metrics EVERY DAY in front of your team. Be prepared to lie like a lot as to why your metrics weren’t perfect. Doesn’t matter if it was you doing the right thing and taking care of a client they will tell you you did the right thing but you must document in your daily log lots of useless information to again make your pathetically incompetent boss job easier when it comes to micromanaging you. Vanguard loves to send out lots of emails and make you do a lot of unnecessary manual reporting for your metrics. By doing this it will hurt your metrics and you will have to talk about it at your stupid huddle. I have colleagues who recommended doing this while clients are on hold and the supervisor acted like that was a great idea. You will find many colleagues who are in low pay grades but have been there for 20 years, there is a reason. They are the most useless incompetent people and there is a reason they are where they are and will make your job much much harder whenever you call in to a department and get one of these useless individuals. They will push back and refuse to do their jobs because they are lazy af. Vanguard promises career mobility and lots of opportunity. Not true at all. Getting off the phone is nearly impossible in NC. The roles are incredibly competitive and few and far between for the good phone roles (advice). For the last advice posting there were hundreds of applicants for a handful of roles. We have tons of People who have passed multiple CFA levels or have a CFP and are stuck in a low grade client service role. If you want to move up quick get into leadership. Be the biggest suck up you can be and you will get a role as a “leader”. The internal promotion process consists of you writing a cover letter and interviewing. The jobs are solely given to those who interview well. If you have experience, credentials, great performance reviews or recommendations you will be overlooked by someone who answered STAR questions better. You may think I am exaggerating, I had 2 hiring managers, multiple supervisors, and a senior leader all tell me that the interview matters over everything. They even had the nerve to tell me my job performance did not factor into their decision AT ALL. No wonder there are so many incompetent supervisors. Pay is low and slow to move up. Even as you move up the ladder it is not like other companies where you may see large jumps in pay. It is extremely slow increases unless you are in certain positions. In NC advisors are where the money is. Our processing is a nightmare. You will deal with many angry clients because of how inept our processes are. There is a focus on improving them and changes are being made so this may get better. There are new rules and changes to your job. You will not be given any time to learn about them but will be told it is your responsibility to find the time. Meaning lunch break or before or after to work to learn these changes. Almost everyone gets “fully successful” as a performance review. If you are a high performer chances are the people that are terrible at their job will get the same raise and have the same comp as you. Just leave. Trust me if you are a high performer who will make much more outside of Vanguard and you will never get paid what you deserve. Vanguard loves mediocrity. If you stay you will see all of the top reps leave fairly quickly.

Pros

Great culture, nice co-workers, great business model. The company truly cares about its client and everything we do has the clients in mind.

Cons

Pay is low in the industry, and it’s hard to move up.