Vanguard Employer Reviews

The hours were decent and the benefits were fantastic. Overall, the job was great. The managment was good. The equipment was par for a print shop with the usual occasional problems that come with printing large volumes.

Vanguard is a great place to work, you will never get rich but you will also never get laid off

Time management skills are necessary, constantly under pressure. Great place to learn the basic of client focused finance. Not a great place to continue or build a career.

Nice company and benefits but no mobility in the Charlotte NC location. The few positions that aren't strictly call center based are fought over like crumbs. Management plays favorites in selecting candidates for internal positions. It is also an unspoken rule at Vanguard that if you want to advance within the company, then additional special projects, – more... presentations to management, etc are expected for no additional compensation. Compensation is low compared to other investment companies. Charlotte office is only a good starting point for recent grads, as tenured associates are overlooked, overworked and underpaid. – less

The most enjoyable part was being among so many talented people and the support of the management team

Usual day was cleaning semi trailors. I did not learn anything. Management was there but there wasnt good communication. My coworkers were just doing there job. The most enjoyable part of the job was clocking out.

team members were great. Great place to meet nice people. Need better management.

If you are OK working in a heavy process company, then its for you.

A very busy workplace. learned so much about telecommunications and investments. Had a lot of co workers.

The company's focus (although professed to be about the investor and the crewmember) is squarely aligned to the investor at the cost of the crewmember (employee). Pay for performance is non-existent and the comp plan actually breeds and promotes a high degree of mediocrity. It can be a frustrating place for high performers.

Basically, if it's your – more... first job out of college or you plan to retire in the next 10 years and looking for a place to ride off into the sunset, Vanguard is the place to work! – less

A corporate culture of mentoring, volunteerism, charity, and responsibility. A good work/life balance, flexible time, telecommuting, reasonable compensation, and advancement opportunities are all available, but are highly dependent on the department and/or manager. My time at Vanguard spanned all three of the CEOs. The company has changed (and continues – more... to change) from an idealistic, iconoclastic company to a much more mainstream, growth-oriented American corporation. You will succeed and be very happy at Vanguard if: You buy into the culture, you’re politically adept (and politically correct), you get satisfaction from tooting your own horn, and you believe that process trumps product. Cross-departmental / cross-divisional projects often felt adversarial. Lots of little fiefdoms protecting turf rather than collaborating for the good of the company as a whole. Very bureaucratic. Management’s general avoidance about taking ownership and actually addressing the issues. Best to push things onto subordinates (the lower the better) without clear expectations or the appropriate resources and maintain plausible deniability. Little evidence of a cohesive (company-wide), long-term strategy or vision. A strong focus on fixing the small immediate problem in a way that frequently results in more work / re-work later as well as squandered resources. The recent changes to compensation and profit-sharing reward job performance over tenure. While these changes may have been necessary, they have had a negative impact on morale. There are a fair number of employees that are netting less annually than they did 5 or 6 years ago. All incentives to stay with the company for any length of time have been removed. Performance standards and expectations can vary substantially from one manager to another, even within the same department. Some of the methods used by Vanguard to maintain the “never had layoffs” stability are: 1) Creating attrition by using a series of poorly-defined, impracticable negative ratings on annual reviews that will negate any possibility of a bonus, merit increase or finding another job within the company. 2) Changing the description and/or expectations for an employee’s current job or rank resulting in those same poorly-defined, impracticable negative ratings. 3) Forcing employees to re-apply for their own jobs and then rejecting them. Vanguard touts its diversity and employee feedback efforts. My experience was that diversity meant “don’t offend anyone” rather than recognizing and accepting differences. Year after year employee feedback was solicited, responses were provided, teams were created, projects were launched, and, after a few months, everything faded away with no substantive changes. – less

I enjoyed my time at VG and think it is a great company with great work environment. While it struggles to attract top talent mostly due to low compensation it is a company that has continued to grow and will remain a dominate company based on it business model. They lay out realistic expectation and while advancement is slow and very structured it – more... is possible. I left mostly due to better compensation and advancement opportunity. – less

Fairly well-defined business. Not overboard on technology mix so manageable and tractable. Well-experienced and competent people. Good work environment and managers are willing to be flexible with hours. Full-time associates can work from home a day or so a week. Good internal "Agility" system makes for well-managed project management where each person's – more... assignments and work are well defined. – less

I worked alongside some very driven and talented individuals which helped push me to be the best that I can.

It's a good company to work for because everyone knows the Vanguard name. There are a lot of different departments to take part in and you meet a lot of different people. Everyone is helpful and willing to help. The hardest part of my job is when people do not give enough back up information so you have to look into it.

review and managed projects. coordinate projects with other department leads and manage several projects to its entirety.
Learned the 401K financial business.
THe hardest part of the job is to schedule meetings and availability of the team for huddle meetings.
I enjoyed working with coworkers and clients but the most important is to see a satisfied – more... client after the project completion – less

Typically we all work independently assisting clients with their financial needs and proving excellent customer service. I have great co-workers always willing to help out if needed.

Great compnay for learning the many areas of the financial industry and great benefits.

I took inbound calls everyday anywhere from 30-70 calls. The calls ranged from questions concerning client accounts worth from 100000.00 to 500000.00, completed transactions, researched paperwork sent in by clients, may have to involve different departments to resolve issues, I was on the overflow line for high wealth clients value over 500000.00, I – more... handled small business retirement accounts and assisted clients sitting up online accounts.
I learned about mutual funds from training's and from other team members. You were keep up with daily information. Management were available to assist you. The hardest part was tax season.. – less

it was a fast paced workplace. it was a boring job because you couldn't communicate with no one besides the supervisors. The supervisors didn't know what was going on at all times.