Prudential reviews

3.7

65% would recommend to a friend

(5,238 total reviews)
avatar

Andrew Sullivan

61% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Prudential has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 5,238 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Prudential employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

5K reviews
2.0
Jan 8, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Name recognition. People are familiar with the name.

Cons

It was a glorified pyramid scheme. They leverage the lifelong relationships for a check. Their model is to have a rotating door of associates that bring clients to senior associates. They stress joint-work. What that essentially becomes is new people bringing their family and friends to veterans. The veterans ultimately keep your clients. Regardless of what they tell you, you're an insurance salesman. There is no incentive to, and they dissuade you from being a financial resource. All they want you to do is bring big clients to senior advisors and sell everyone else insurance. After 6 months only three of the 14 people on my team were still employed at prudential. You work full time hours and have part time status so that they don't have to pay you. It's a vulture culture.

3.0
Oct 24, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The benefits are excellent and start from day 1. They do not require a triggering event like other companies I've interviewed with. The compensation is OK; you can get a paycheck from your draw account, but if that account runs dry, you end up in the hole because you still owe for your benefits. Overall, management support is pretty good. Managers are available to assist you with cases and so forth, as are veteran agents. The training and career development is outstanding. The first 10 weeks are spent getting trained and licensed. There are also abundant opportunities to earn free continuing education and support to earn professional designations. There is a culture of joint work, which means you see clients with senior agents to learn how they do things. Most of the time, commissions are shared, as is credit toward the mandatory checkpoints. The atmosphere is pretty good, too. FSAs tend to get along with each other and are supportive. The rest of the office staff is available to help solve problems and is also supportive of our goals.

Cons

This is not an easy job. The checkpoints involve a certain amount in annual premium, which are not always easy to make when you work with a veteran agent who takes a significant cut. Also in terms of veteran agents, some of them will use FSAs to do their prospecting and client service. Granted, sales from prospecting are generally shared, but service is not and it can take a lot of time and aggravation. Some of the veterans won't return client phone calls, so you're stuck taking them, getting an earful of yelling, and helping them anyway. This is also not an easy job if you have a family. Most of the successful FSAs tend to be single people, or if they're married, they have no kids or a stay-at-home wife. You are expected to work as long as you need to to make sure you've got your required minimum appointments, many of which tend to be in the evenings and on weekends. If work-life balance is important to you, this won't be a good fit. Management also tends to take ideas from other offices, which is fine, but there's little, if any, follow-through or troubleshooting if those ideas don't work out. FSAs are also expected to contribute financially to these projects, which is fine, but the return on investment is kind of low. For example, I spent $180 I didn't really have on mailing campaigns that netted no usable leads and lots of abuse. Then the focus went away from mailings and onto something else.

3.0
May 1, 2024

Typical Corporate Hellscape

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

• you get a paycheck • benefits are decent

Cons

• No autonomy - the miriad of management layers will ensure you'll be micro-managed regardless of your level of experience or expertise • Executive leadership routinely LIES to the employee population (even when the truth would suffice) We are adults and professionals, we can handle honest talk about impending staff reductions (and maybe if you were honest, we could use this info to decide whether or not to make a major family purchase, etc.) But no... Prudential likes to surprise people with org changes and layoffs. • Agile / scrum work methods are a charade, Pru doesn't REALLY empower teams, they just say that and continue to top-down micr-manage everything (and then wonder why agile is not resulting in reduced time-to market, hmm... wonder why...) • Promotions are based on making sure you're located in Newark (ew..), kissing up to sr execs, drinking all the koolaid, and waiting your turn in line after those who have been waiting longer for a promotion. Promotions are absolutely NOT based on demonstrated work results, educational credentials or subject matter expertise. So yea, you will never be promoted. • Job postings are also a sham - if it's a real job opening, the winning candidate has likely been selected before the job was posted, but many of the job postings do not even reflect actual openings that will be hired for. • Work priorities are constantly changing to reflect the outcomes of upper-management power struggles. Every new exec feels the need to "mark their territory" by having a big re-org, and changing the work priorities. This also serves to knock down the employees, by keeping the ground moving beneath their feet, and making sure they feel powerless at all times. • This is yet another company that has become anti-remote-work after the pandeminc, reflecting an undelying distrust of employees (and perhaps an unholy alliance with the corporate real estate market). Like similar companies with toxic environments, they offer the fake explanation of "collaboration" (but require people to report to an office even if no one in their work group is located there) • There's plenty of messaging about work / life balance, but in reality you will be given a month's worth of work and told it must be completed by the end of the week (but hey... take some time off to recharge... yea, right) • This would be a good company to use as a stepping stone early in your career, but only a fool would stay for the long-haul. It's like a cute but mean person you might date in high school for fun, but not the type with which you would build a long-term relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

Viewing 82 - 84 of 5,238 Reviews

Glassdoor has 6,934 Prudential reviews submitted anonymously by Prudential employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Prudential is right for you.