The business model of a large book collectively managed by a large team of FAs requires the individual FAs to be relatively interchangeable in order to deliver a consistent service. As a result, there is very little incentive for the firm to encourage any type of upskiling for the FAs.
The scale of the book of business relative to the number of FAs encourages driving clients toward firm-managed products that provide more efficiencies.
It is definitely a boys' club. The FA side of the office is somewhere around 90%-95% men. This degree of gender skew often results in harassment and misbehavior with essentially no possibility of recourse.
There is a palpable divergence in your obligations to the clients and your obligations to the firm. If your actions do not clearly drive underlying sales metrics, you are not doing your job.
The fact that you do not build your own book of business makes finding future positions difficult.
The "quantity over quality" ethos is reflected in the support teams that you have access to. Some reps are really good at what they do, but sometimes you will get someone who was trained last week, has no idea what they are doing, and may even be intoxicated.
There are very few avenues for career progression.
