Edward Jones reviews

I want to write this to potentially help someone from making a huge mistake. I want to write this to help someone who may be in my shoes and give them some information I wish I would have had. When I was trying to decide on if Edward Jones was a good place to work all I had was other Financial Advisors giving me the sunshine and rainbows that just come over the to firm, you will be great at it, just do it! I was not informed of the actual process and what Edward Jones is really about. Let me give you a little background about me. I had a great job in which I was able to work from home, had a company car with free gas and insurance, a company phone, made a very nice salary, full health benefits, 401k with a big company match, and even a pension plan. Why would I leave that you ask. Well it was very stressful. I am in my early 30’s and figured I needed to at least try to make a switch at this time in my life or else it would be nearly impossible later. So in comes Edward Jones. I get the whole story from another advisor about how great you would be at this job, you have to join, just do it you won’t regret it. So I go through the entire interview process. Just the interview process is like a job in itself. I had to write an entire business plan based on what income I expect to bring in within the first 3 months to which I have no clue as I have not worked or been trained a day on the job. Along with that at the end of the 6 week interview they do “a day in the life” in which you are supposed to perform like you would as a Financial Advisor during a normal day. This was a 3-4 hour activity in which you were supposed to prepare an entire week for (remember I working during this week) and somehow know how to work as an Advisor in which you have never done before in your life. So here comes the good part. They make you an offer. And an offer is barely what it is. They offer you an hourly wage that you could make working as a new hire at White Castles. So I start talking to the Financial Advisor who is helping me through this process. I explain that there is no way I can survive on that amount AND go out and buy a new car as I will be giving up my company vehicle. Again, I am assured it is worth it and it’s only temporary if you can make it work. Again, just do it, you won’t regret it. At this point I have no idea why this Advisor cares so much about me signing up or not, it didn't make sense. Based on this pay rate of barely anything and my new expenses I would be incurring I actually talked to the hiring person about the possibility of working somewhere else during my the evening as my study time was apparently only going to take up about 45 hours during the week. I was definitely uninformed. So I go for it. It was a tough call but I gave in the hype and the understanding that Edward Jones was a great company that would stand behind me until the end. So then the training starts. I get a box with a binder with about 700 pages of material to study for the series 7. I am told I will have a help and support team to help me get through all of it. So then you start studying by yourself for about 12 hours a day to keep up with the schedule. I start calling in saying the information is going to fast and they tell me not to even read the book but you will learn it by taking tests. So I keep going. I get to the test portion and of course I see some of my scores below what I want them to be at. We are informed to expect the scores to be lower and not to worry about it. So I call the staff. I also tell them it is taking about 4 hours to take the test and review taking another 2 hours. I am informed to take the tests faster and keep taking more tests. I have no idea how taking the tests faster will help and of course it doesn't and scores stay the same. I call back in telling them I need to review the prior few chapters to get my score up and they tell me you cannot do that. To keep taking tests. So here is the great part. I get a call after about the 8th test in the middle of the afternoon telling me that they have decided to part ways, pack up your computer and log your hours because you will be locked out in about an hour. That was it I asked!? Where was the help that I was promised I asked. I was told that it had nothing to do with the hours and study time I put in it had to do with the test average I was at which was roughly 10-12% below where I needed to be. I told them I knew that and that’s why I called in but was told to keep taking tests. But that was it. I was out. Done. Finished. IT WAS LESS THAN 30 DAYS. They didn't even let me take the test. After putting in about 60 hour weeks studying including weekends they call and tell me to pack it up. There was no help. There was no study team to help you when you knew you did not understand a few chapters. You are 100% on your own to learn everything about the Series 7 in less than 30 days or you out (regardless of if you have any prior experience or not). So I gave it all up to join this firm and that is what I got from them. Nothing. 30 days and on compassion from anyone. One final note. I was told by a senior study specialist that they are required to keep a good passing statistic in order to meet their goals. So they only allow the people that are above the average to move forward, if your under you hurt their goal and their paycheck. So rather than actually help the people you have decided to give a “career” you burn them, send them on the street and keep the others. It is a mill. Hire as many as you can, keep the ones that will be above a percentage and cut the rest. Who cares about them. You get people in the door with no experience, who were promised a career, give them no help and just keep the others. They could care less about you. You are just a statistic. 
It’s an unreal deal and is unbelievable a company would do this to people. Make sure you understand this.