Pros
The biggest advantage I saw in my time at AXA was the quality of the people. My manager was always available to talk to me and teach me...even answering my questions via text at 10pm at night. The branch manager (Jamie) is a big wig in the company, must be making seven figures, and yet still has an open door policy where even the newest advisors can stop into his office. He used to walk around the cubicles just to say hi and tell funny stories or help with any questions we had. There were definitely advisors doing very well (not all) and there was always a focus on doing the right thing for your customers. I learned a lot during my two years there, but ultimately didn't make their validation schedule because I figured out I'm not really a good fit for financial sales. Still the experience was top notch and I still have a bunch of friends there.
Cons
Like many of the other reviews said, the hardest part is finding the prospects to talk to. Once you do that, the products, services, and joint work partners in the San Diego office are all high caliber compared to what I saw out there (I worked for two months at another financial firm with basically one product...whole life insurance...no matter what the client needed and the manager there was an authoritarian micro-manager!). It sounds weird, but the other challenge I saw at least in the San Diego AXA office was that people hung out with each other probably too much. It was easier to hang out with cool colleagues than to prospect for new clients. While it was an awesome culture to be in, it probably hurt me in the long run in hindsight.
