Branch Office Administrator - Beware the Level Office You are Hired Into - BOA Branch Office Administrator Edward Jones Employee Review

Each office has a "level" assigned to it based on the $ millions of assets under care with other minor considerations. Your bonus and ability to achieve limited partnership are to a great extent geared off of those factors. Due to that, you live or die financially, bonus-wise, on the level office you get hired into. Only after I was hired did I find out offices have "levels." Looking back, my FA hired me with all the enthusiasm of a used car salesman, practically jumping up and down and telling me about the potential for great bonuses and thousands and thousands of dollars. This, in part, was because the actual pay itself is pretty low, so he wanted to paint a picture of enticement. What a bunch of smoke and mirrors. After hired, I found out this office was only a level 3 office. You work very hard the first year learning and doing all the training modules. The training-type bonuses at 6 months and I year are modest; $200-500 or so. Actual branch bonuses, given 3 times per year, for me, were pathetic- I think one was $94, another was $44 and the last one was $38.00. Starting only at about level 5 and up to level 10 do bonuses start to really be significant. My FA made a commitment to the community that impacted his bringing in assets for the year I spent with him. My FA also used my one year review as a tool for his own cost containment and found ways to mark me down in order to slide by with a minimal increase in pay. It was always about him and no one else. At the end of the review I asked, "will it ever be enough?" and he said, "no, it will never be enough. I will always want more." I was crushed after a year of very hard work and effort. I took my time and quit about 8 weeks later, right after he went on a diversification trip and I called him on the phone. It actually just worked out that way; timed only once I had a firm offer to take another job. It was amazing to me that he seriously said he was "shocked" that I quit. Really?