FA Training-Do yourself a favor and run, run far away! - Financial Advisor Trainee Edward Jones Employee Review

1.0
Mar 6, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Edward Jones is willing to throw some money at you to study for your licenses and pass out their advertising brochures door to door.

Cons

If you are lucky enough to get a good knight or takeover an office where someone is retiring, you'll be fine. Unfortunately, these opportunities are usually given to relatives of the retiring FA, or those in corporate who know where to move. Don't believe you can make it from scratch. You can't. Those days are over and the nation is infiltrated with established Edward Jones offices, who are your competition. This is a dangerous job, especially for women, who are sent out to knock on stranger's doors for up to 3 years, unarmed and unprotected (It's against company policy to carry a weapon). In the first few weeks of door knocking, you will be passing out your cellphone number (handwritten on the back of their advertising brochure) to these strangers until Edward Jones gets you a business line. You are expected to get 25 phone numbers per day for 7 weeks from these strangers, and attend meetings with your foundation trainer-That is, if they have time to see you. Don't expect to learn about investments. Expect to spend 12 hours per day knocking to get your numbers. You will not have a business card or anything of value to offer anyone, not even an office...Just get the phone number and tell them you're opening "a practice". You will not get a real office for over a year... Could be 3 years. After 7 weeks, if you have 350+ phone numbers, you will be sent back to St Louis to call these strangers you know very little about to sell them something they don't need or want while someone from corporate listens in on your calls. At this "Eval/Grad", Jones will tell you that "you can't hurt them by selling them J&J, for example. When you return from Eval/Grad, expect to door knock for a few more years, rain or shine, sub zero temperature or heat. It doesn't matter. Just do it...and get those phone numbers!

Explore other reviews about Edward Jones

5.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great starting pay, good training

Cons

I did not find any cons

2.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Holds firm to its conservative investment philosophy.

Cons

The firm has been behind the times for decades. It is great that they are finally trying to get up to speed, but the rate of change is not manageable. There has been a high turnover in support staff and it's hard to get accurate information when needing support. It also seems like they have lost their original focus of being the local friendly financial advisor in your backyard and being accessible to the masses. The focus has shifted to high-net-worth individuals and catering to the wealthy. I've watched several advisors get pushed out because they expressed concern and needed support they weren't receiving. When hired as an advisor I was told I'd receive all of this wonderful training of what to say and how to overcome objections and did not receive any of that training. Most of the training is a high-level overview with homework of figuring it out on your own time. In order to be successful as an advisor at Edward Jones, you need to plan on working 80 hours a week for at least the first five years at the firm with little to no support.

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