If you don't have a network of twenty friends each with a million bucks to invest, you will have to resort to being a telemarketer and door to door salesman. Know what you're getting into. The "financial advisor" aspect of this job is about 2% of your time. The other 98% is spent beating the bushes for people who have money to invest.
So if you don't mind interrupting people eating dinner and asking them if they'd like to work with a financial advisor, this might be the right line of work for you. Figure on at least 250 dials per day.
Although you will receive enough training to get your licenses and a 4 day sales-camp to get you started, after that you are 100% on your own. You will not get a mentor to help you, as they promise; you will not even have a manager to guide you and help keep you pointed in the right direction. You are completely on your own.
Once a week, the Complex Business Develolment Officer holds a 45 minute meeting for all the new FAs. You would think that the purpose and nature of these meeting would be to talk about sales strategies and morale boosting but you'd be wrong. He talks about the performance of 15 different stocks in his personal portfolio. Maybe he'll hand out copies of some two-page article he read that week in Forbes. But that's it. There will be no talk of sales or prospecting.
The turnover rate for the company (and the industry) is brutal; it's a revolving door of new faces.
I admit, telemarketing didn't appeal to me and I knew I was falling behind. And since no one ever checked on your progress, it was easier to find other things to do. But at one point, I went to the Complex Business Development Officer and begged him for a manager, someone to check my progress daily and weekly, even if only for five minutes. I was told I could not have one, even though my branch manager was only 30 feet down the hall from my office.
So I went directly to the branch manager and asked if he wanted to see my call logs every day. He just said no. Then one day the CBDO walked into my office and nicely told me to pack my stuff. No warning, no performance review.
I have no idea how this company stays in business (well, they would have gone OUT of business if it wasn't for their TARP bailout). There is no management whatsoever. None. Even if you beg for oversight and guidance, you will not receive it.
