Pros
Decent office, decent people, ok amenities
Cons
Plenty. "Who you know" atmosphere, perks that do not add value to the paycheck (vacation properties COST you money to use, and are time gated, as well as gated by seniority), skeleton staffing (they do not back fill positions, they expect employees to "step up"). Location is a NIGHTMARE in terms of traffic, morning and night. It is situated right next to a very busy train station, as well as a college campus (Brandeis). Make no mistake about it. Commonwealth is a financial services company, but the roles offered are generally Customer Service roles. Most positions are customer facing to one degree or another. The customers are Advisors and advisor offices around the country. Expect your "expertise" to be questioned daily, by both internal and external customers. I cannot emphasize this enough. The roles generally found on the career site are CUSTOMER SERVICE roles. This is not exactly a con, as there are plenty of people this works for, but they are not up front about how much customer interaction there truly is for most of the roles. Bear in mind that the company is PROUD of their service model, which works at the expense of the employee. i.e. If you ask for help with a particular advisor/office, you're generally a man on an island until the Advisor/office complains. Exceptions are the RULE, not the exception. Promotions are GIVEN to those who schmooze with supervisors and managers. You could be a top performer (I never tried to be) and be passed over for someone who spends their day shooting the breeze with the Sup/Manager crew. In at least a few instances, no job req was EVER posted, however an announcement was made regarding several promotions. Metrics. METRICS. You are judged solely by your ability to achieve arbitrary metrics. Your numbers must "make sense" and will be picked apart by your supervisor. You might be told you're doing great one meeting, then told you're not meeting the "make sense" metric in the next. Truly frustrating. Lastly, pay. They will SWEAR up and down that they pay a market rate. I would counter and say no, that is a fallacy. Pay is abysmally low for the industry and geographic location of both home offices (Waltham, MA...very roughly 10 miles from Boston, and San Diego, CA). Please keep this in mind, as the Boston Metro-West area is not known for being particularly affordable. I have heard San Diego is very similar.