I recently accepted an offer to join EJ as an FA and will start KYC in a couple weeks. I currently work in an asset retention role at a Fidelity Investments phone center. Been following this forum for a few months and have found this forum useful. This is my first post and wish to provide some personal feedback on the hiring process at Edward Jones as a way to show some gratitude the posters out there.

In the interview process, I was asked to complete a survey activity and commit to a number of surveys. I chose 20. I have heard that others who have been hired have done anywhere from 15-30. The questions to ask are easy and not financially related. They include (word for word):

- May I ask your name?

- How long have you lived in the area?

- What brought you to this area?

- Do you frequent the businesses in the area? If so which ones?

- What are some things that you like best about the area?

- Do I have your permission to contact you if I have additional questions?

- What is the best phone number to reach you?

It took about four hours (from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday) to get this done. I did this in a suburban neighborhood. I met all types of people: chit chatters, jerks, stay-at-home mom’s with babies screaming, the lady with 9 cats in her living room, and retirees.

For what it’s worth, I think it is a great idea to require applicants to go through the D2D survey activity. I knew the purpose of this was to see if I had the intestinal fortitude to approach a complete stranger.

This activity can be sobering. I had to knock on a lot of doors. Half the battle was finding someone that was home. I think I knocked on 9 doors before I completed my first survey. For the hour or two following my last survey, I really considered terminating my application. It was my personal “come to Jesus” moment. I thought about it further decided I would rather knock on doors than answer 30+ phone calls a day from angry clients for the next 30 years. Even though the starting salary is equivalent to working as a bagger at a local grocery chain, I feel that this is an unbelievable opportunity.

Question for EJ Reps: I think I have read in some other posts that reaching 1-2 SOLID prospects is considered a good day of door knocking. Can anyone confirm this? Can you provide some context or input around how 25 “quality contacts” translates into prospective clients or even sales results (assets/or new accounts). I am sure everyone will have different experiences.