Vanguard reviews

Where to begin. After 17 years working in various capacities, under 3 different CEOs, there was a complete 180 in leadership vision. Many people did not have a positive view of Brennan when he was appointed, however he still had a focus on the crew, from top to bottom. This began to shift in 2008 when Bill McNabb took over the helm and appointed somewhat slim-margin focused leaders at the MD level, who truly stopped caring about putting the best people in seats, but rather young, MBA students with no clue how to do jobs, in the most visible seats. Once VADP (Vanguard Accelerated Development Program) was introduced, the atmosphere deteriorated drastically. The focus was on putting young, ivy leaguers in the most critical roles. At that point, products and services deteriorated rapidly, being run by individuals with zero market and product line experience. There began a complete shift from having experienced leaders in the right seats, to DEI hires who began to put holes in the "ship". Cost became the overall focus; in an industry-wide race to "zero". The resulting issue was complete lack of service, for products that were essentially becoming comparably priced across the entire investment industry. There are several products, however Vanguard is an investment firm first. They attempted to offer "shell products" long ago (i.e. internally recordkept retirement plans, IRAs, college savings programs, annuities, and so on) and could never manage to become leaders in excellence for managing those "product lines". But the investments cost next to zero, so there in lies the value (Bogel's vision). When Vanguard figured out that they were truly in the business of being the investment provider, and were unable to compete on service with the true product lines, they began to outsource everything (i.e. in comes UPromise, Ascensus, Goodbye Annuities, InfoSys, and so on). Service continued to deteriorate and internal frustration grew with the crew. Goals were often unattainable and every division was stretched extremely thin. If you didn't agree with the lean approach Buckley introduced in 2013/2014 as the Retail Division's MD (and further when he took over in 2018) get out of the way, or simply leave. That was the culture. Probably the reason why he was at the helm for the shortest duration in company history. Corporate culture was in the toilet. People were given ultimatums if you were over 50 and began "forced" retirements, leaving to start second careers. Literally thousands. COVID hit and several other force out tactics began to materialize. Product offers were falling apart and the general public started to notice that price is important, however not at the cost of zero service. This was the new reality for Vanguard, and still currently is. I have more former colleagues, than not, who had significant tenure and upper level senior roles, who just gave up on the organization and left voluntarily. Literally hundreds and some of the best employees in the organization for even better, yet similar, roles in other leading organizations such as your Fidelity, T. Rowe, Empower, CapTrust, etc. Being on the outside, as an advisor for a few years and now as director of sales for another organization, it's interesting that my once touted reference to being a former Vanguard crew member is not looked at positively from my prospects. Most that I mention that to during interactions, have less than positive customer interactions and poor views of the organization, which is not only eye-opening, but sad, given the amount of time I prided myself in working for this company. Vanguard is a great place to cut your teeth for experience, in order to get a job with a more effective firm that cares for their employees. That's about where it ends at this point. I was happy to have experienced this part of my career, but what any eye-opening experience being at another prominent firm today. My roles in product management, strategy and sales were fundamental in my career development. However, I never drank the Kool-Aid, which is likely, largely why I'm no longer there. If you decide to join this organization, be careful to speak up or challenge the status quo. If you do, it will likely result in a negative outcome.

Severe lack of internal communication.