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My EDJ Experience

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Aug 26, 2009 10:49 pm

Currently, I’m undergoing the interview process with EDJ and will hopefully net an offer and be on the journey towards success. I found this forum to be very useful in choosing the firm that I would like to work for. So I have taken it upon myself to document my EDJ journey.

A little bit about my background:
Fresh UCLA grad with a BA in economics
4 financial internships, some sales/customer service experience
I choose EDJ because it seems to have the most comprehensive sales training program out there. In addition, many of the wealth management teams at wirehouses focus soley on financial/customer service training but not on the core skills needed to build a book.

8/20* Completed online application
8/25* Completed first phone screen - went over educational and work history mostly
          Be sure to thoroughly read the financial advisor packet
8/26* Phone interview
          Went over educational/work history briefly
          4-5 organizational questions
          1. Name a time when you failed and how you succeeded from that time? etc
           Answer any and all questions by:
           1. Stating the situation
           2. Stating the action you took
           3. Stating the outcome
8/31* Went in for a branch office visit. Everything went well. And HR says i’m moving            
           forward as soon as my background check clears.
9/02* Background check cleared
           Scheduling F2F interview and committing to 25 surveys
9/09* F2F interview
          Went well, I could tell he was a big producer, 10 years in the business.
          Lots and lots of behavioral questions and about 10 questions on the surveys
          I snuck  peek at his recommendation and it said, “Good Candidate”
          So I’m exceptionally excited
          His mentality was different than HR’s STAR approach, he liked short concise 1 line   
          answers. Luckily, I caught on, or I would have been roadkill. I guess its true with all
          finance professionals.
9/11* Got the letter stating that I didn’t get the position. What to do now…

Wow, on 9/11…


If anyone has any tips or suggestions on how I can smoothly make it through the interview process. Please post!

Aug 26, 2009 10:52 pm

Check out indeed.com and their Edward Jones forum section.  Every step of the interview process is covered.  Should keep you busy for a few hours.

Aug 27, 2009 12:22 am

If you have pulse and do the work ,you will be fine.

Aug 27, 2009 11:02 pm
voltmoie:

Check out indeed.com and their Edward Jones forum section.  Every step of the interview process is covered.  Should keep you busy for a few hours.

  [quote=millionairemind]If you have pulse and do the work ,you will be fine. [/quote]   Although the site indeed.com helps as far as knowing what to expect in the interview process, I would say that reading it is very depressing. You will soon realize that millionairemind is right. We hire just about anyone, to the point where we are almost as bad as MSSB... its depressing.     With that said I wish you the best! Happy selling... *ahem*, advising!
Aug 28, 2009 2:25 pm

But yet, here you are.  Interesting.  Or is that ironic? 

   
Aug 28, 2009 2:37 pm

Yes but only because getting into Harvard was less of a challenge. I wasn’t hating on Jones I was saying that I will take far more pride at making segment 5 one day than I will having gotten hired since the new guys include the likes of Still@ and MBA… just kidding guys

Aug 28, 2009 3:24 pm

It’s amazing how many of these threads get started every month. In another month or 2, he’ll be on here creating a thread called “I hate Jones, they don’t know what they are doing” lol

Aug 28, 2009 8:43 pm

lol, after lurking on these forums, jones was one of the top choices. pwm divisions just aren’t hiring and I simply do not have access to the familial cash to be successful as reqs have gone up. i’m going to make it in this biz as if its my last chance.

Aug 29, 2009 1:37 am

I went into kyc 6 months ago with 64 people in my class…only 29 are left! I don’t think you would get worse odds if you just hired everyone who showed up at your booth at the monster career fair.

I think this is odd because there’s many salespeople (who became authors, speakers, trainers, etc.) who talk about how it took them 6 months of struggling before they could figure out this sales game.


Aug 29, 2009 1:44 am

Good Job coming to Jones! You made a good decision - now stick with it. Lots of folks make the mistake of bouncing around from firm to firm looking for greener pastures… Don’t make that mistake. Its not good for your or your clients. If you were at another quality firm, I’d say the same thing - but I’m glad you’re with Jones. By the way… the “D” has been gone for a bit over a decade… Good luck!

Aug 29, 2009 1:53 am
NumbersGeek:

i’m going to make it in this biz as if its my last chance.

  Sounds a lot like a friend of ours who has a Masters degree and turned that into a career as a financial advisor.  Hopefully you don't come back in 2 months telling us about the interview you just landed at the local newspaper selling subscriptions because they seem to have a better "culture" and a boss that makes sure your office is properly air conditioned.
Aug 29, 2009 3:16 am

Hey N-Geek… I had the same attitude as you nearly two decades ago when I started in this business. It works - really well. Keep cranking it out… everyday. Pay no attention to the detractors…

Aug 29, 2009 3:52 am

[quote=3rdyrp2]Sounds a lot like a friend of ours who has a Masters degree and turned that into a career as a financial advisor.  Hopefully you don’t come back in 2 months telling us about the interview you just landed at the local newspaper selling subscriptions because they seem to have a better “culture” and a boss that makes sure your office is properly air conditioned.[/quote]

You forgot about the free lunches with the wholesalers…he gets free lunch…

Aug 29, 2009 2:15 pm

Still, you don’t get the free lunches from the wholesalers remember. You get the free lunches downtown at the park.

Aug 29, 2009 8:48 pm

HAHA… i loved the free lunches at Merrill when the wholesalers came in… One day it was Joe Terranova from Vitrus investments, the guy from cnbc’s fast money.

So much for being an unpaid intern in the middle of skyscraper $15 lunch hell. Those were my favorite days to come to work.

Sep 10, 2009 2:11 am

Wish me luck!

Sep 10, 2009 3:23 am

Good Luck!

Sep 10, 2009 10:45 pm

God this wait is killing me. I was told they would get back to me in  5-7 and 7-10 business days. After all my research on EDJ and reading the financial advisor guide 3 times and indeed forums nonstop… It would feel like a total waste if I don’t get the job.

I’m just ready to kill it… seriously… dk in the field and build a money train

Chu Chu!

Sep 15, 2009 1:15 am

=/ got the letter… No go

Shattered my dream on 9/11

What to do differently?

Sep 15, 2009 11:53 am

[quote=NumbersGeek]
=/ got the letter… No go

Shattered my dream on 9/11

What to do differently?

[/quote]

Think you have three options.

1. move on
2. get an EDJ vet or RL to stand up for you
3. Apply at MSSB, they seem to be hiring ANYONE these days. Seriously.

Good luck.