financial advisor

branch administrator

software architect

senior java developer

senior accountant

Edward-Jones

A lot of what you are told is sugarcoated in the beginning. I'd highly recommend researching this in depth before choosing to go this route. The bottom line is, if you are New/New, the chances of you surviving are extremely low. Either you won't bring in enough assets, or they will starve you out with their ridiculously low salary. I took a 50% pay cut from my last job to this one. From what I've seen and learned, the process for deciding who gets what office and who has assets shared with them is extremely political and usually a HUGE conflict of interest. If you know or are related to the right people, you could potentially be set up for long-term success. If you don't know many people within your region starting out, the chances that you are put in a position to succeed are rare. The only path to success without knowing the right people and getting a portion of some assets shared with you is to knock on doors for 30-40 hours per week and HOPE that you get lucky and find the select few right people. The worst part of this is that all of the people that have been handed huge books of business and are successful as a result of it will tell you that you have to nonstop grind and knock on doors for 40 hours per week (when they NEVER had to do that themselves). With that being said, I have personally witnessed people in my own region nonstop grind and build a successful business without getting a book. It is possible, but it requires luck as much as anything.

There is a lot of support from veterans throughout your region. However, if you don't seek the assistance, no one will check on you and you will be on your own island because they all have a business to run themselves. You make your schedule and decide how you build your business, so that is a plus. If you aren't putting in the work, they will let you go if you don't perform. They genuinely seem like they want you to succeed, but there are so many small things they do/don't do that say otherwise. For example, one of the small things for me is having an office where they won't even allow me to put my name on the door. My clients walk into an office with another FA's name on the door. It's small things like that that really hurt your chances at success. You would think that if they aren't going to share any assets with you that the least they could do is make the office look like it is yours so that when people walk in it doesn't scream "Brand new advisor, AVOID".

As for the "nationally recognized training program", it is a sales training program. They DO NOT teach you how to be a successful Financial Advisor. You learn how to knock on doors by doing nonstop role plays for an entire week (12 hours a day). You are taught an extremely minimal amount about investments and what to actually do with the clients when they show up for an appointment. After a week, you go into your "Field Foundations" where you are knocking doors from 8:00 am until dark for 5 weeks straight. If you don't accumulate an appropriate amount of contacts and phone numbers, you won't be allowed to go back to the training 5 weeks later to receive your "Can-Serve" date. Keep in mind that while you are out prospecting for 5 weeks, you can't call yourself a Financial Advisor because Edward Jones says you can't. Even though you have passed all tests and are already properly licensed to be an Advisor, it is against Edward Jones policy to call yourself an Advisor, meaning you can't use business cards or anything. Just another small thing that hurts your success. After 5 weeks, you go back to Tempe or St. Louis for another week. I personally was hoping that entire week would be mostly about learning how to present proper solutions to clients when I sat down in front of them. It wasn't that at all. You are in a room that is set up like a call center and all you're doing the majority of the time is calling all of the phone numbers you got for 8 weeks. You're calling from an Arizona number so if you aren't from the Phoenix/Tempe area, don't expect anyone to answer. And the answer to whether or not you are allowed to use your cell phone is NO. They can't monitor what you say on that cell phone so you can't use it. Yet another small thing that kills your chances at success.

Edward Jones is a nationally recognized company and you can have a lifelong career of success. If you are political enough or know the right people in the right positions well enough, the chances of you succeeding are high. If you are new and don't know many people, you literally have to get lucky to survive. Those that survive likely have a mom or dad that built (or inherited) a huge book of business in which they share with their kid. The other survivors will tell you they lucked out and knocked on the right few doors. If you are comfortable knocking doors 25-30 hours a week for 3-4 years straight, this job is absolutely for you because the opportunities are endless. If you are a person who knows that will get old after a while or aren't comfortable knocking on the same persons door 10 times before they even consider becoming a client, then I'd highly suggest you save your time and look elsewhere.

My experience with Edward Jones started out on a positive note, however that quickly changed due to the office I was placed in. Don't get me wrong, Headquarters was VERY helpful, and they were always willing to answer my questions, no matter how complicated they were. The support you receive from Home Office is unlike what you get with the majority of other companies.

My negative perception of this job relates to the treatment I received from my advisor. As advisors, they are not given management training whatsoever. The company prides itself on the branch being a "partnership", but the advisor is the one bringing in the assets and doing all of the selling, so ultimately they are the boss. 

2-person office: Working in a two person branch is tough. For me, I had an unhealthy relationship with my advisor. I found the advisor to be manipulative, cruel, and impossible to please. There were many instances in which I was blamed for what former administrators had done. Simple mistakes sparked instant conflict within the office, even if they were mistakes made by a prior administrator. Anger was expressed if small things weren't done in the office, things that would take maybe 10-20 seconds to complete/fix and could be done by either of us. Responsibilities laid heavy on me, especially as a new administrator. I am all for a challenge, but at a few months in, I was uncomfortable completing tasks in which I had not received training. I was told to "figure it out", and raced around, calling multiple other BOA's/headquarters, when my advisor simply could've taken 5 minutes with me to explain how to complete the task at hand.

Working alone: My advisor was also out of the office more than she was in the office, and went on 4 vacations during the time I was there, with 2 more scheduled after my notice was put in. If you enjoy working alone, this may be perfect for you, but if you prefer to have conversations with others, other than just through a phone, you may want to re-think this position, as you will be working alone a lot, regardless of who your advisor is or what level they are at.

Clients: The clients were the saving grace with this job. I created relationships with them that won't soon be forgotten. They were always appreciative of things I did for them, and they almost always came in smiling and happy to see me. Some of them had been going through some tough times, and it was satisfying to be able to sit with them and talk them through situations they were facing.

Bonuses/Pay raises: You are only eligible for a 1% pay raise each year. Depending on your advisor's level, you will receive bonuses every trimester, however these bonuses are determined by your advisor. They can share up to 10% of the branch profitability bonus (I believe). If you are in a level 6 or up branch, these bonuses are higher than in the lower levels. The bonuses are taxed at a higher rate, so prepare to not see the full amount, but they are still quite nice to receive :).

Multi-tasking: For this job, you need to be extremely talented at multi-tasking. In a busier office, your phone could be ringing all day long in the midst of your other tasks. Training for this position is also done for an entire year so you also have to complete learning modules as you go (which are very simple to do luckily). It's best to schedule some time to complete the training each day/week if possible, coordinating with your advisor so that maybe they can answer phones while you complete training.

Advice: My advice to anyone considering working in this role: know who you will be working with on a day to day basis before accepting a position. Ask them about their management style. Ask why the former BOA left. Talk to them about how they run their office, what they view the office culture as, what their organizational style is, and what their expectations are for you. If you feel uncomfortable taking the position or like your personalities may not be a good fit, do not take the position, as you could be looking at a hostile work environment. This job isn't for everyone. I know many BOA's that have been in their roles for a long time, but the ones that have stayed have generally loved the advisor they are working for.

I came to Jones because of the lauded training program, and thought it would be a place to be proud to be a part of. Found out too late much of the carefully crafted image is just that: the surveys on Best Place to Work, and Best Training Program are faked and filtered so only favorable reviews are used. The much-repeated adage that anyone will help you is not true, after asking around many regions and finding that most volunteer trainers are only doing it for advancement of their own careers and care little for your success. You will NOT be running your own business as they claim. You are a W2 employee, and what you do is the same as outside sales, with that same freedom and that same attitude from management that the only thing they care about you for is what you bring in. Your P&L is the same as being a department head, not running your own business. You can't even hire/fire your teammate, the office administrator, without their approval. Much of the training is platitudes, and telling you what you should be doing, berating you if you aren't successful, and explaining that those who fail are those who just "didn't do the work" regardless of how many hours they put in, with little help toward HOW to do the work, answering questions, and guiding you. Little to no product training, yet you are responsible for people's life savings, and their attitude is that they only allow generic investments, so "you can't hurt anyone". Not the best feeling for new people learning finance, or even experienced advisors who want to do more for clients than simply "not hurt them". Use outside sources for your best training. If you fail before getting your own office, veterans absorb your clients and assets -- motivation for them to let you sink or swim on your own. Guidance and assets given to you to start are only for chosen few -- those who come from other firms, or who have a seriously wealthy network to draw upon. Many use Jones as a starting point and outgrow it to go to other firms, particularly if you truly want your own branch. Jones has one of the worst turnover rates in an industry known for turnover -- but of its VETERANS, let alone the new people who normally flame out at every firm, which is why recruiting and growth is more important to them than improving training for those they have. New people bring in some assets and clients, then leave and the firm retains the assets and just hires five more new people. This is their business model for growth. The best part is that you are independent to make your own schedule, and meeting with clients is wonderful when you can help them, but be aware that you will be working 70-hour weeks for about four years first, while barely making enough to live on, before that flexible schedule for your kid's soccer game they tell you about really kicks in. You are expected to profess love for the company as a dutiful Stepford advisor at every opportunity. You know you can talk to an advisor truthfully when they look over their shoulders and then quietly whisper to you when around other Jones advisors. As in any company, there are some good people there, and if you find the right people to help you early on, you have a chance, but you have to sift through the mercenaries to find the missionaries. Not a favorable company for women, despite their desire to improve diversity -- it's an old boys' network. Watch what you sign - the contract has cost many $75,000 upon leaving for other firms.

When you start a career with Edward Jones you're told that everyone wants you to succeed and is there to help when you need it.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  The overall way that they deal with clients in a one-to-one setting is great and you get a great chance to become friends with a lot of fabulous people... BUT ... the reality is that they want you to succeed so that their bonuses are larger not because they want you to succeed.  They want us to work the 60+ hours to ensure that they get their bonus.  I have worked in a region of the company whose primary goal as a region is to be in the top 5 regions.  Nothing else seems to matter after listening to our regional manager.....NOTHING.  If you're a "rockstar" then they will help you as much as they possibly can but for those of us struggling the help seems to dry up and no one has the time all of a sudden.  I spent a lot of time trying to find that just right person or group of persons that would be willing to be a mentor.  The search was tough and still haven't gotten a mentor that is really there to help to the point of I don't even know what I'm looking for in a mentor.  They actually started calling them business coaches now, no more field development person from the home office NO HELP. Each office has 1 advisor and most of the time 1 branch office administrator.  The goal of the company is 20,000 advisors by 2020 and the assets to go with that goal. Then the partners get an ever increasing bonus - believe me, I've been told this by two entirely different people at least 4 times over the past 12 months - that we, as newer advisors, as costing them money on their bonus.  If this sounds like sour grapes, it's not.  It's 3 1/2 years of working  the 60+ hours and not getting a lot of success in gathering new clients and being tired, drained, wiped out.  This is the hardest work I've done and believe me I've done some very hard and taxing work.  

Thing twice if this is what you want to put your family through as I feel guilty all the time now for being a grouch with mine.  It's not worth it to tax your family in that manner.  My family is more important to me.

One more thing.  When people leave, the bad mouthing that goes on is horrid.  These are upstanding people, honest, ethical and they are drug through the mud and publicly announced that they left because they were -------whatever the reason and talk badly about that person, it's disgusting.

Or how about the advisor that is just a short amount of sales away from one of their diversification trips (I'll pay for my own trips, thank you) - do they do the right thing and put that client into the type of investment vehicle that is the right thing for them and the right thing to do and they don't make much $$ on it or do they put the client into an investment that will help them make that trip?  When they allude to the fact that they would do the latter which has no integrity whatsoever....what does that say?  And it's allowed.

The training is great but you don't always have the time to do it.  There are development dinners each month that they cannot require you to attend but will hurt you in others ways if you don't.

To start with, you "can" earn an exceptional income with Edward Jones ....... if you can make 5 years. Here's a few things you need to be aware of if considering a financial advisory position with Edward Jones.
Edward Jones requires a home study program to achieve your series 7 and series 66 passing test scores. You will be paid an hourly wage during this period of training. The time allotted for this is approximately 8 weeks to digest and comprehend about 1200 pages of financial legal ease. This will require about 70 to 80 hours a week of continuous study. Once you have completed this you are required to gather more than 300 face to face contacts with address and phone numbers of which you will cold call while at a 4 day training session in St Louis while instructors listen in. There are minimum goals to achieve during this time. Pere pressure is used to press you to perform. If you don't show up with a few people set up to buy while during this session, you will not hit your goals.
Edwards Jones is proud of the idea that they "make you drink from a fire hose". You will experience information overload during these sessions with very little time allowed to digest and practice the info.
Once you have received a can sell date, which is at the time you attend this session, you will be put on a daily set of contacts and sales/commission goals that will require you to work long hours 6 and 7 days a week to achieve. You will know after a few weeks of door to door cold call sales if you have the magic to be successful with Edward Jones. They don't waste time with you if you can't hit the sales/commission goals. They are really only interested in keeping super achievers, everyone else is thrown away. 
My recommendation is that if you are considering a career with Edward Jones be sure that you "come on board" with a developed network of wealthy friends and rich relatives that you "know" will immediately be able to convert to clients and ones that will invest with you. In my area, the FA success rate with Edward Jones is about 1 out of 10 and those people are the ones that either have inside friends within Edward Jones or have a few wealthy relatives willing to invest big bucks until you can develop your client base. You "do not" want to come on board as a "new-new". Make sure you already know an Edward Jones Financial Advisor who is willing to help train and allow you to work in "his" office and is committed to sharing some of his overflow business to insure that you succeed ....... so breaking into the "good old boy" network in your area is imperative to success, again, you "do not" want to start as a "new-new".
Hope this helps anyone considering Edward Jones as a career in financial advisement.

I was not fired, I resigned from Edward Jones, due to the realties I began to see. I love building relationships and networking; I believed Edward Jones's philosophy was truly to build relationships with your community, but I was fooled. It is a great place to work if you are a sales person and you like doors slammed in your face or threatened by home owners. Luckily for me I didn't care, but there were some young ladies who had to call the police. 

EJ provides the train for the tests and pays you to study for the tests. They also pay for your to travel once you pass the tests. Some of the people are very helpful and friendly but many of the older veteran advisors can be hard to deal with. Edward Jones is hiring a lot of new advisors and saturating the field. Many veteran advisors are feeling as if they need to protect their book of business. I don't blame the veterans at all. They have built their business and worked hard to do it. Edward Jones does not have a set area for advisors to prospect in, they only require you not to target current clients of EJ Advisors. But, when EJ is telling you that you have to have so much in new assets by a certain amount of time, people begin to get creative. It becomes a resource scarcity issue. EJ will tell you they are all about building the relationships with people, but if you do not have enough new assets in a certain time frame you will get calls and they do fire people. It is a sales job, no matter how you explain it. You have a quota to hit and it start the first 17 weeks, then it roles every 4 months. I am not talking about a few thousand dollars. You will go out and knock on doors. I am really good a networking and building relationships, but this takes time to build trust so people will hand over their retirement to you. So, your only other option is knocking on doors (this is also great advertisement for EJ). If you leave the company, they people will forget you, but you have just advertised all over a city or town for EJ. You can use social media, but it is very strict and compliance is all over it. You cannot post anything EJ on a third part page. You are not supposed to invite friends to like your business page (even though people do). All you do is post what EJ allows you to and hope that people come to your page. I would suggest you not have family or friends come to EJ as your clients, until you are sure your job is secure. If you leave or get fired, EJ will keep the clients and transfer them to another advisor. It can make your friends and family made, because they trusted you. All the new clients you bring in, will stay and make EJ money, while you get nothing once you leave.

I love the company and the culture but depending on your situation getting ramped up and successfully bringing in enough clients so you can make ends meet can take well over a year.  In the mean time your pay decreases at a rapid rate so you have to make it up on your commissions.  If you don't then you fall below expectations and could be out on your tail with no severance and no benefits.  I'd say it's a good place to start if your single.  If your a family man it is a big gamble that you are going to make enough money even if you bust your tail and do everything they say to do.  Client creation and asset accumulation is very tough and if you don't meet the right people and they don't have a good reason to leave their current FA and bring assets to you then good luck living on the small investors.  You need to be bringing in at least $200K a month new just to survive.   The commission rate the first three years is terrible.   The insurance is major medical so be prepared to pay all your doctors bills because it's only good if you get into a major accident.   Be sure you ask up front about the salary ramping down.  They were not up front with me on this.  I was told for 2 years I'd have a guarantee base while I built my business.  Wrong!  At month 10 because I received a Goodknight my salary is going down.  Goodknight does not mean your life is on easy street.  Veteran FA's give you the bottom of the barrel and you are supposed to be able to make something out of it.  It helps them with their business and in my opinion hurts yours.  Meanwhile they give you their worst clients and EDJ suddenly thinks because they gave you these clients your salary should go down and your monthly expectations go up.  If the Veteran FA couldn't do it why do they think a new FA can.  Mine are mostly elderly people who are drawing down every month and very small accounts.   EDJ needs to give new FA's a full 2 year salary and more time with Goodknight clients before they expect increased productivity.  If they did that then maybe more Advisors would succeed.

If you want to give this a go you better pile up your savings because you are going to dig into it or worse your retirement to keep the dream alive and keep working this job.  I have found after one year selling it is probably not going to work out for me.  Others in my class have been fortunate and inherited $30 million dollar offices but I am new/new with a very poor Goodknight that is actually making it harder for me to continue.

I was really excited to get my new job at Edward Jones until a few months in I quickly realized this was not the job for me.
If you are looking into a job as a BOA at Edward Jones, you need to realize that the financial advisor (FA) you interview with is going to be the person you interact with all day every day. You will have no coworkers to talk to throughout the day. Other BOA's in the region welcome you the first week or so but that's about the only time you'll talk to them. I thought I'd be fine with the FA I had but unfortunately I learned as time went on that he and I had absolutely nothing in common so it makes it even harder for conversations. You get to interact with the clients when they come in but that's not for long and for my situation, most of the clients are above 50 years old and don't seem to want to talk to the new girl, they just want to know where the older woman is that had worked here for years. 
When it comes to the work, I have always been able to finish my "To Do" list within the first hour. After that it's just answering phone calls and making phone calls. The majority of the time at work I spend calling clients and asking for them to come in for their annual reviews. You have to call the ones that are upcoming, the ones that are overdue, the ones that are required, the ones that are suggested. Sometimes I feel like I'm just working at a call center.
The high deductible insurance is frustrating. The pay is OK I guess. However there really is no room for advancement. The FA can share with you bonuses (if they want, they're not required) but it's such a little amount you get after the taxes, it's really no big deal. I haven't made it to my yearly review yet but if I do get one, it's not like it will be much. The company doesn't pay you, the FA does so they choose what you receive. 
When it comes to training for the position, you are told you'll get good training but in my opinion, you do not. You learn things from power point presentations and then on your own. You don't get help from a trainer on site or anything. You get a mentor that you can call and that's it. And usually the FA does not know how to do the things the BOA does, so that's not much help either. You must be very independent and know how to use the resources are you given. 
The regional leaders all seem like Edward Jones is some kind of cult by the way they praise the company and constantly ask for referrals to get more people to apply here. It's so bizarre. 
Overall, I don't think this job was worth me applying to if I had known what I know now. For me, it's boring and lonely.

Job applicants beware!

Work/life balance:  You will have no life in the first several years because you will be making outbound sales calls in person and on the phone.  You will have to make hundreds of calls per day to make 25 people talk to you in earnest about their savings.  You will face a lot of hostile people you call.  Why? You are cold calling them.

Comp/Benefits:  Jones says their average rep makes such and such their first year.  Lies! They exclude people who were fired, laid off for not making sales quotes in year one and beyond.  They will never tell you their turnover rate because they guard their image very carefully. Think multi-level marketing.  After expenses, their payout is close to 30% or less.

Job security/advance:  None.  You are only as good as your last month of sales/revenue within a 3 month average.  One bad month and you are on probation.  2 bad months they're ready to replace you.  Your clients and assets?  HQ and senior reps are circling to divide it up among themselves.  Your failure is their benefit.  They hire thousands of recruits each year.  Why?  Cheap to train on massive scale.  You gather assets, generate revenue.  You fail.  They retain assets and revenue.  Thank you for your service soldier.

Management:  Mantra: we care about you. Anyone will help you.  (Code: we care only if you gather assets and generate revenue.  No, not anyone can help you, they are busy counting how much they are going to make in bonuses, get your clients, your assets. How many new hires, competitors they will get this year).

Culture:  You are ranked based on sales.  Bad sales, and you are now at the bottom of the list.  Your numbers are constantly looked at and publicized.  Think multi-level marketing.  Rah-rah!  Think and grow rich.  Sky is limit.  If you fail, you weren't positive enough, not hard working enough.  Doesn't matter if the system is designed to have a high failure rate.  They will never publish their failure rate or turnover rate.  Why would any pyramid scheme business model do that?  Makes them look bad.

Summary:  You can succeed here.  The chances are very,very low.  If you want to gamble and waste 1-2 years of your life, by all means, go ahead.  I wouldn't recommend it.  Even if you are successful, their payout is very low compared to truly independent firms. Smart reps don't go the proprietary route.  There are other independent investment adviser firms that are truly independent.  Search for them.  If you are lazy, you will pay the price by going here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at Edward Jones is the coworkers who genuinely support one another and the structured systems that make the day‑to‑day work clear and organized. Some teams have strong collaboration, and when you’re with the right group, the environment can feel positive and helpful. However, it does not outweigh the toxicity of the firm

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part is the extremely limited PTO and sick‑time structure. Unlike many healthcare systems such as University of Louisville Health, which offer separate sick leave, mental‑health recognition, rollover options, and more flexible policies, Edward Jones provides a very restricted bank that does not roll over, cannot be donated, and resets each year with no real support for emergencies. Even several finance and insurance companies now offer more modern, flexible PTO models with wellness days, mental‑health time, or accruing sick leave — but Edward Jones has not kept pace. The lack of flexibility makes it difficult to manage real‑life situations, and the culture often doesn’t match the “One Firm” message, which adds to the stress.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is structured and process‑driven, but the culture often doesn’t match the “One Firm” message the company promotes. Collaboration and support vary widely depending on leadership, and teams can feel siloed rather than unified. While some coworkers are genuinely supportive, the overall culture leans more toward compliance and metrics than flexibility or employee well‑being. Policies, especially around PTO and sick time, don’t reflect a people‑first culture, which affects the overall work experience.


What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day can feel very stressful and unorganized. The workload is constant, priorities shift quickly, and communication between teams is often inconsistent. You spend most of the day trying to keep up with tasks while navigating unclear processes and limited support. The structure looks organized on paper, but in practice the workflow can feel chaotic, which adds pressure to an already demanding environment.

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