Pros
The cafeteria has pretty decent food and the health plan is better than a few other finance firms I’ve seen.
Cons
Geez, where do I even begin. I should preface I am NOT in an entry level position, so these are not the typical “call center” complaints or the like. This is coming from a person who really understands this company. The structure: the structure is not only incredibly inefficient, it’s also dangerous from a regulatory perspective. No one knows what another team is doing (and I’m not talking about places that need a “Chinese wall”) I’m consistently amazed at how long very important issues take to solve, issues that could easily result in fines for the firm or losses for a client/introducing broker dealer. It’s not uncommon that it can take 2 months to resolve and issue and my temporary solution has to be “just keep doing what you’re doing because it’s either that or stopping a instrumental part of your business entirely.” From a risk standpoint It’s scary how lenient the firm is with its financial advisors and introducing b/ds due to their structure. After having seen what I have seen I would not be caught dead having my money managed by anyone associated with Raymond James. It’s incredible how relationship managers have the such a major part in the final say in disciplinary actions against malpractice by the aforementioned parties. The people: I have never has the displeasure of working with more terrible people. Don’t get me wrong, if you are a cut throat go getter you will love it here. But if you are a good and decent person who wants to work hard but also not kill them selves or others to do so, then you are in the wrong place. If you cannot help someone get ahead you are nothing to them. It is incredibly common I hear/see complete disregard for people if they are not in a place of power. (This is coming from a person in power FYI, so I can see it first hand) People here believe they are a “brand” (I’m not kidding. This is something I have literally heard countless times) Obviously there are some kind individuals who work here, but for the most part you will be sorely disappointed with your co-workers and bosses. There is NO cooperation between teams or people. Why? Because they are all so obsessed with their image that they are too scared to take on any sort of responsibility. The benefits: Abysmal.... the pay is averageish, however, they are cutting costs and their ability to pay competitive salaries is fading. But let’s say that you do get a competitive salary, great! Now you have to deal with the cap on raises between positions. It used to be that if you were promoted in the company to a new pay grade you could look at a max of around a 16% raise.... now the max you are looking at is around 8%.... this is not just my experience, this is the experience of all my co-workers AND straight from the horses mouth in HR when I questioned it. The time off is terrible for a finance firm... 2 weeks of paid time off per year and 2 personal days. Not only is that terrible for most any financial company, but when you see how terrible the work life balance is here you’ll hate it even more. The work life balance: It’s average to work 60 hours here on salary, no extra for overtime and as I said, since raises are capped so low you aren’t working towards anything more than a few extra dollars after a few years. The culture: if I have to hear this company brag about moving up on the Fortune 500 list one more time I will lose my mind.... I have worked for 3 Fortune 500 finance firms... none have even been close to this bad. They brag about their revenue while cutting costs. The associate surveys? Haha yeah no... we had an entire firm wide meeting dedicated to the associate surveys people filled out... I assumed they scheduled it because the reception had been so terrible (I know for a fact many employees are pissed off currently about the company) they blatantly said to our faces “it’s been fantastic to see such positive reception to our changes as per the responses in the survey.” Why is this? Most likely because it goes back to these people protecting their brand... god forbid someone relays that their employees aren’t happy to the big men upstairs. Honestly, I could keep going on, I really could. I’m actively looking for other positions and IMPLORE you to do the same.
