Vanguard Accelerated Development Program
I have an initial phone interview with a HR woman at Vanguard this week. I'm considering applying for their Accelerated Development Program. For those that are not familiar with the program, it is a 1.5year rotational program that prepares you for a career in investment analysis, people leadership, or client relationship management. I'm pretty set on investment analysis (specifically equity research), but I'm not sure that Vanguard is where I want to be in the long-term. My buddy who works there says that they don't have a true ER team, and that they heavily quant mondels rather than performing fundamental analysis.
Can anyone share their experience with this program? I could really use some help weighing the pro's and con's of entering into this program.


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Could be wrong, but I thought
Could be wrong, but I thought Vanguard mostly ran passive funds. I'd imagine the research would focus on portfolio turnover when the underlying indices rebalance to minimize tracking error. I've also heard the culture there isn't great and can be very political, although I'm sure your friend could speak more to that. You want to make sure you can land a research role after the program vs. management/phones.
^ I actually heard quite the
^ I actually heard quite the opposite about the culture. A close friend of mine works there and just got out of the 1.5 year training program, he is managing a team in fixed-income. I think he makes around 55k base + maybe 10k bonus (not sure).
"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan
Culture is terrible and the
Culture is terrible and the honest employees will tell you that. Cold call some if you don't believe me.
buybuybuy: Culture is
Culture is terrible and the honest employees will tell you that. Cold call some if you don't believe me.
Can you be more specific when you say "culture is terrible". I don't want to find myself hating my life if/when I get there.
BTbanker: ^ I actually heard
^ I actually heard quite the opposite about the culture. A close friend of mine works there and just got out of the 1.5 year training program, he is managing a team in fixed-income. I think he makes around 55k base + maybe 10k bonus (not sure).
Do you know anything about promotions? What kind of opportunities do they offer after you've been out of the program for a while?
Rdonahue7: buybuybuy: Cultu
Culture is terrible and the honest employees will tell you that. Cold call some if you don't believe me.
Can you be more specific when you say "culture is terrible". I don't want to find myself hating my life if/when I get there.
It's better if you talk to employees yourself as anything you get from me would just be hearsay. It looks like glassdoor has a pretty good variety of reviews.
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/The-Vanguard-Grou...