Two phrases that have appeared on the forum in the last day or two are worth taking into the weekend.

1.  The pride in your Series 7 score is how hard you studied to learn the material, not how little you studied to avoid learning it.

2.  It is far easier to resign from a wirehouse than it is to be hired by one.  Given a choice the smartest way to approach this business is to prepare yourself for, and interview with, the best firms in the field.

Then, later, after you have learned all they can teach you go out on your own if you're compelled to do so.

But do it slowly and with a lot of thought.  It is true that a few cents of your gross production is used to pay somebody like me--but I assure you that if we work for the same firm (and we may for all we know) I am providing "value added" that you'll never see and won't come to understand until you're gone.

Once you're gone it's virtually impossible to come back--so go if you want to, but do it for reasons that are unrelated to whining about layers of unnecessary management.