Brokerage Associate - Brokerage Associate Vanguard Employee Review

Vanguard has truly lost its way as an employer, and I believe it is still a great place for those to have self directed accounts. The amount of people who have left Vanguard to go to industry competitors just this last year is mind blowing. People have fled Vanguard to go places like Blackrock, Fidelity, American Funds, Wealthfront, UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan. So Vangaurd obviously has had talented crew members within their ranks. Vanguard refuses to promote and further develop those who are capable of being high achievers in financial services. Competitors to Vanguard are just poaching people to bring them to greener pastures. Within my role at Vanguard I felt more knowledgeable than more than half of the managers, many of who never actually had any relevant experience in the roles they oversaw. I always found it comical how little respect the phone associates have for the senior managers. For example one was referred to as a leprechaun and another was referred to as snaggle tooth, I wanted to work for a place where the managers could help build me into a great investment professional not ones who had little knowledge about financial services or cared little about my actual development. The drive to lower cost is hurting the service provided to customers since Vanguard is unable to pay for talent they are having to settle for cheaper and less qualified phone reps and contractors who know little of how the real industry works or how to use the systems. The crew is stretched by trying to tackle so many job functions and you are having clients forced to wait 20 min just to place an equity trade because all the traders are forced by management to do other tasks is ridiculous and not putting the client first.There are a lot of system issues at Vanguard and my computer constantly froze up or shut down in the middle of client transactions. My last year working at Vanguard I felt lost, unmotivated, and unchallenged in my job. I felt for my own sanity it was best for me to run faraway from the dreadul walls of vanguard. Those who want a work life balance with low pay and lots of vacation days they cannot take due to understaffed departments may find Vanguard appealing, but for those who want to actually feel prideful in your work and make a great living working for a financial services I highly suggest you either jump ship and take your skills and go to another shop. The grass is greener on the other side trust me. I have no doubts leaving Vangaurd was the best decision I will have made in my career.