Commonwealth Financial Network reviews

After the annual review process screwed over an obscene amount of high performing employees due to “miscommunication” by upper management you would think that would be the worst of it. Upper management brings zero to table which causes teams to pick up the slack and employees (specifically management) are stuck doing the work of 3 employees. When you express these concerns in a professional manner to HR and upper management, no changes occur because all CFN cares about is saving money and they won’t appropriately staff teams to be successful. Instead they are leaving directors and SVPs in their roles when they add no value and rely on managers and supervisors to handle everything leading to extreme burn out. Not to mention the people that are handling all the work aren’t even paid appropriately unless they are being protected by someone higher up.

-Unfortunately, things went downhill during the pandemic. SO MANY tenured people have left and Commonwealth feels like a different company. - The pay here is not going to knock your socks off. They use their large annual bonus (~20%) to try to make up for that and convince you otherwise, but a large bonus is not guaranteed. During the pandemic, our bonuses were smaller and we all took a pay cut. It's understandable given the situation, but just something to consider when they bring that up during the interview process. - Handling of the return to office was not ideal. It felt very rushed and we were constantly being inundated with the "Better Together" initiative. It felt like a gut punch after working so hard through a pandemic - heck, we even earned Commonwealth a JD Power Award while fully remote! There should have been more praise and recognition for our work instead of constantly being told we are not a good company while we are remote. - Even though they say they are shifting to a "hybrid" model with up to 2 days remote, you actually may not be allowed to work remote 2 days because it is at the discretion of your manager. Same with the "flexible" working hours. YMMV, it really depends on your department and your tenure. - Parking is super expensive for the San Diego downtown office ($180+/month). - The technology breaks down way more often than it should, and some of the client-facing systems look like they are from the early 2000's. - The company's partners are a bunch of older white guys. I know Commonwealth is working on their DEI, but there really needs to be more diversity of race, gender, and age at the partnership level. - This one was the deal-breaker for me: Unfortunately there is very slow career growth. Higher-level positions don't open up often, and you are left waiting a long time. This is why people leave. You can move up much quicker and make more money by jumping to a new role at a new company. If you're just using Commonwealth as a stepping stone in your career, this might be your place. But if you're looking to climb the corporate ladder quickly at one company, it aint it.