In my time at Edward Jones, I discovered that your success is based more on who you know and not on how hard you work. If you have been in the industry for less than 10 years, I advise against a career with Edward Jones, especially if you are not close with an existing Edward Jones advisor. Starting with assets and an existing book of business greatly increases your likelihood of success. I was the only person out of my hiring class consisting of people from all around the country who made it past the initial 17 weeks and did not receive a book of business. There were also multiple people hired after me in the same area I worked in who received books of business while I did not. I knocked on thousands of doors (among various other prospecting strategies) and spent thousands of dollars out of my own pocket on advertising and promotional items/events. It was not easy, but I was able to make it work until the Covid-19 epidemic. I of course was no longer able to engage in prospecting methods such as doorknocking and trade shows any longer which were my main methods of prospecting and were also promoted by Edward Jones as the best prospecting methods. However, Edward Jones kept performance standards the same even though we were in the midst of a global pandemic as they wanted to weed out newer people in order to put more money into their own pockets. I was told I had 4 months to correct my performance. I was let go 2 months into my 4 month plan even though my performance had improved. My goal of writing this review is to provide transparency and ideally help someone avoid making the same mistake I did by working at Edward Jones.
