Pros
Benefits were good, especially medical insurance. The Index funds are great. If you have zero experience but are enthusiastic, they might hire you.
Cons
Vanguard likes to claim they are the only ethical firm in the business, when in fact they are no different than any other financial firm. It may have been different under founder John Bogle, but they removed him 20 years ago and it’s a miserable culture now. If you can imagine a combination of Walmart’s cut rate atmosphere, high school gossip and cliques, and a religious cult in which questions are not tolerated, you’ll get the idea. Managers are condescending and officious, and the floor is in a constant state of panic due to system failures and lack of staffing. Meetings, prep time, and lunches are regularly cut short as they herd you back to the phones for the latest emergency. Management constantly feeds you conflicting information, and even outright lies, and then refuses to take responsibility for it. In a constant effort to wring more and more out of you, you’re scheduled for training and meetings during your unpaid lunch, and encouraged to work off the clock before and after your shift. You’re taking calls every minute of your shift with zero time in between, so if you want to read email or training updates, you have to do on your own time. Every Taco Bell manager knows you can’t work people off the clock, but it happens at Vanguard. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a class action lawsuit at some point. On our first day on the job, we were told we were eligible for the full annual bonus, even though we started late in the year. A few months later, they reneged and told us we’d been misinformed and it would be prorated. When people complained, we were herded into a room where an executive shouted at us for believing what we’d been told. No apology, ever. This kind of scenario is typical: major misinformation from higher-ups, and when things come to a head, management gets hostile and confrontational. Prior year’s bonus is not paid until the end of June of the following year, so you have to stick around for six months after the end of the year. For your first 6 years the bonus is a reduced amount. You hear a lot about the high 401k match, but it’s smoke and mirrors. Vanguard’s starting pay is about 20% lower than other firms. If you do the math, you’ll see that Vanguard’s is a lower match for the first few years because you get zero for the first year, and then it takes 6 years to vest. You’ll leave for a higher-paying job before then. PTO is hard to schedule, so if you try to take a week off with your family, it’s likely you’ll only get some of the days approved. I’ve had supervisors tell me to cancel PTO after it was approved and I’d already made plans. You can’t count on anything you’re told no matter how much confirmation you’re given. System failures cause your PTO to drop off the calendar like it never existed. Often, you’ll arrive for a meeting to find the room has been double-booked due to system issues. Or you’re scheduled to be in three different places at the same time, seriously, or in a room that doesn’t exist, or the room is shut down for repairs. I also saw exit doors boarded over during renovation, which is a fire code violation. The disrespect for employees is jaw-dropping. Managers are obsessed with monitoring restroom usage. You have to go into Break status to use the restroom, and this is forbidden during the first and last hour of the day, as well as the hour before and after lunch, and within a half hour of market close. I once took a 2-hour call that ran into the last hour of the day, and then went to the restroom. My manager reprimanded me afterward, and even after I explained the situation, I was told that I should have cleared it first! After a team meeting, managers tell employees not to use the restroom on the way back to their desk. You’re expected to go back to your desk and switch your status from Meeting to Break, before you can use the restroom. Vanguard also provides about 50% less break time than competitors. Vanguard managers tend to be arrogant and standoffish, as if they’re lowering themselves to speak to you. Management is not concerned with your opinions, even when you’re trying to improve processes. They don’t trust employees with decision-making authority. The atmosphere is like being on a high school field trip and the chaperones are following you around, shouting “Don’t touch that! Don’t go over there!” Even a CFP advisor is unable to adjust a client’s investment mix by more than 10% without manager approval. And a CFP in a non-advisory position isn’t allowed to make recommendations at all. Why encourage the certification if you’re not allowed to use it? Jobs are reduced to assembly line simplicity whenever possible, and employees follow a script and a checklist for every call, even at the highest Advisory levels. Deviation from the script is forbidden, and if you forget a checklist item, you’ll hear about it. Vanguard will send out a mailer to clients without informing staff, and then when clients call in to ask about it, you are blindsided. Communication between departments is nonexistent. You’ll call another department for help, only to find that the phone extension has changed. You weren’t notified because the meeting to explain it was canceled due to lack of staffing. Meanwhile, details will be emailed to you that you’ll be expected to read on your own time. If you do happen to reach the right person, they’ll give you pushback to avoid taking your call. The client languishes on hold while you try to find someone, anyone, to help. The average client is transferred SIX times before reaching the right person. Vanguard seems to be pushing older and middle-age staff out the door. Managers over 40 are rare, and managers over 50 are unheard of. In recent years they’ve been hiring managers straight out of college into the Accelerated Development Program, in which inexperienced staff are put on the fast track to leadership. Nevermind that most of them have no leadership skills. Vanguard is looking for unquestioning obedience and the ability to reproduce the latest buzzwords and catchphrases when communicating. If this sounds like the kind of atmosphere you want to work in, where you’re just a number, then step right up. Otherwise, there are much better options out there.
