Solid Entry or Mid Level Career
Pros
Benefits are very nice (Insurance, Base 401k and match, year end bonus). Salary is mediocre, but benefits help bring closer to competition. There are a lot of people that work there, so it's easy to find "work friends" to make the days/weeks more tolerable. Lots of group outings. They try their best to provide additional incentives, though they tend to be lackluster (Recognition program, random free lunches, raffles) in the form of gift cards, and they are taxed which is understandable yet tacky. RIS (entry level) was pretty bad, but as long as you aren't an idiot you can get promoted pretty quickly, especially recently. PSG is more skill intensive, challenging, and satisfying. PSG also has a much more appropriate salary (though a parrot could be an average RIS associate, so it's understandable). Campus is great, parking is amazing, and commute isn't bad. There are plenty of restaurants in the area and the commute isn't terrible. Training program was great, continuing education is decent. Every once in awhile they have interesting road shows where important people (CEO, Portfolio Managers, etc) present. Overall I would recommend the job, especially for somebody moving into the area or just graduating college and need something solid to put on your resume. Don't expect to get anywhere substantial for at least 2 years unless you graduated from an Ivy League school. There are double MBAs with CFAs working for 50 grand. It's also not required that you have a business degree to get hired into RIS or PSC, and once you're in the company, degree doesn't matter at all.
Cons
There are very limited opportunities from RIS, one of the better would be PSG. It is very hard to get promoted from PSG to somewhere worthwhile, even if you are a "superstar." RIS management micromanages and has a very corporate mentality; there is very little opportunity for productive thought. Management tends to be former RIS representatives that have been in the job for a long time and weren't good enough to get better jobs, so settled for management. They also tend to get big heads about how important they actually are. Days get very monotonous and bad clients can easily ruin days. It can be very stressful when clients have unrealistic goals or expectations. Management is also very cut and dry, so logical exceptions to policy are rarely made. Recognition is given on a quarterly basis, but rarely recognizes appropriate employees. The winners of Associate of the Quarter, et al tend to be representatives that management like rather than those that consistently maintain high standards. I've also heard that management tends not to give a representative an award more than once, though I think that is counter intuitive. They have ridiculous rules for promotion. You could be the best and smartest person on the floor, but still have to go through the normal promotion (1 year in your current role, rarely get out of RDS without putting in at least 2 years in various departments).