Pros
Gorgeous offices in all locations, Austin HQ is located at the highest point in the area and you can see for 20 miles in each direction. The Charlotte office is brand new and stunning. Santa Monica office is on Santa Monica blvd. I can't say enough about our offices as a geek for architecture. I feel this is why there is a big push to come back to them after covid, because they've spent so much money on them. Technology for the most part is up to date. Most of of low and mid level employees are great to work with. Lately the firm seems to be pushing to hire tons of young people which has really changed the feel of the company over the last few years. Benefits-wise, insurance is good. We have a HSA/High Deductible option that is great. Both 401k and HSA can be vested with the company, 401k match is below average and caps at 4% I believe. Onsite cafeteria in Austin and Charlotte with an excellent selection of foods. Comp sparkling water, fruit and coffee/tea on every floor. ETF launch seems to possibly be pushing the company upward a bit. Upward mobility seems possible for nearly every department. Company is relatively large at ~1600 worldwide so there is the possibility of movement to another location if you want it and there seems to be decent push to promote from within.
Cons
Dimensional is a company that has one foot in the past and another in the future, and is urinating on today. David Booth is old school and until he retires from the board, nothing will change. I'm sure you've already read other reviews below that mention our ancient dress code, the lack of a good work from home policy and the insane amount of overly paid white dudes, and all of that is definitely true. But I do feel the firm is starting to realize that and has started a few initiatives to diversify our employee population. It's a lot better than when I first started. Because the company has spent so much money on offices, they want you to be in them. This also points back to the firm's old school thinking. Top leaders feel that in-office collaboration is still the way to be productive. Before Covid, employees were NEVER allowed to work from home. That all changed of course. Currently we have been told that we'll be moving to a hybrid WFH/office situation where some days you are required to be in office, and other days you can work from home. But that will be evaluated at a later date according to our HR. This is not the company for you if you think you're going to be working from home 5 days a week in the future. I really hope that changes soon. I am a support employee, meaning I'm not directly involved with the money-making activities like RDs, PMs, associates, etc. My group deals with building maintenance, event coordination, project management, video/audio systems, etc. I feel for the type of work our group does, the pay is a bit below average to average considering how well padded the company is. It seems most managers are obstinately overpaid, and everybody under them is paid mediocre despite doing an excellent job. Our group is so great at what they do and we really take pride in our work and work hard! In doing research of firms similar to us, it seems that our investment philosophy is quite unique and some even feel is foolish. I don't pretend to know a ton about finance but I do feel that we are stuck in the past in a lot of ways, especially in employee experience. The saying goes: take care of your people and your people will take care of you, and I do not feel that Dimensional is an employee-first company. I love my team because our team lead is just awesome, but others don't have the same experience. I suppose this is true of any company but it seems more pronounced here. LGBTQ diversity/inclusion is virtually non-existent and was not even recognized until 2020. The way the marketing department is structured in this company is comical and I don't understand how the bosses over there still have a job. Who are we even marketing to? Our clients have to go through an advisor to access our funds. The marketing team is extremely overpaid and overstaffed to basically do nothing.
