I worked at Waddell & Reed full-time (More than 8 years)
Pros
W&R provides great benefits for their employees, a clean and modern work environment, and decent pay. The company is filled with great people that make the days go by quickly.
Cons
The management structure at W&R consists of group decision making which has its benefits but also leads to a lot of poor decisions and difficulty completing projects. The decision-making structure often comes at the cost of non-management employees.
My main complaint is for people working within the Client Services division. The division is viewed as a cost center and employees, even if they are working a similar job function as people in other divisions, will be paid significantly less. You will have to fight to get anything more than a 3% raise even with a spectacular job performance.
Advice to Management
Value your Client Services employees more. They provide spectacular service to both the shareholders and advisors but non-management employees are always stuck on the bottom rungs of compensation. When it comes to projects, there is little accountability for poor decisions or missed deadlines for those in management. Those in the lower parts of the company structure often pay for those mistakes.
Application
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Waddell & Reed.
Interview
Five different interviews between face to face and phone call. A bit of confusion between interviewers on what was already discussed and what steps needed to be taken. Overall easy questions.
Interview Questions
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