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Edward Jones Behavioral Interview

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Feb 12, 2010 4:57 pm

Well I have moved quite quickly through the first parts of the interview process for Edward Jones. I have my behavioral interview on Wednesday and was just wondering if any of you guys could help me out with what I may expect? My recruiter seems to like me, my FA referral on my app. turned out to be her FA so that isn’t too shabby. Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks

Feb 12, 2010 5:12 pm

Tell him you absolutely refuse to door knock (see: pride) and you’re more into the analytical, quantitative methods of finding the fair value of a stock rather than trying to sell it to a stranger (who buys stock from a broker anyway?! see: Scottrade). Also tell him you think the business model as a whole is flawed and in 20 years everyone will be day-trading their way to retirement (see: Scottrade).

  ~hope this helps~
Feb 12, 2010 5:20 pm

Be sure to tell them you aren’t “afraid” to “bend the rules” to get the sale done. ABC!

Feb 12, 2010 5:54 pm

Tell him that you plan on making at least 35 qualified contacts door to door per day, and that you hope to one day individually serve 2,000 households with an average account size of $10,000.  That should get his/her attention.

Feb 12, 2010 8:23 pm

Ask how much vacation time you get and their policy on office relationships

Feb 12, 2010 8:41 pm

Low producing douche bags are all you will find here

Feb 12, 2010 8:43 pm
DD:

Low producing douche bags are all you will find here

  With your heroic post this thread now contains at least one set of "high producing...bags".   Thanks!
Feb 12, 2010 8:51 pm
dlc008:

Well I have moved quite quickly through the first parts of the interview process for Edward Jones. I have my behavioral interview on Wednesday and was just wondering if any of you guys could help me out with what I may expect? My recruiter seems to like me, my FA referral on my app. turned out to be her FA so that isn’t too shabby. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

  Everyone does.
Feb 12, 2010 8:59 pm

Tell them you plan on starting a hedge fund out of your office.

Feb 12, 2010 9:15 pm

Poor guy, can’t ask an honest question! Sorry, dlc008.

  As for your question, just keep your pants on and you will get an offer. If it is a phone interview, make sure you let the interviewer know that your pants are on.  
Feb 12, 2010 9:17 pm

[quote=Billy Mays]Poor guy, can’t ask an honest question! Sorry, dlc008.

  As for your question, just keep your pants on and you will get an offer. If it is a phone interview, make sure you let the interviewer know that your pants are on.  [/quote]   That is for the phone interview. When you actually interview with an FA in the field pants are completely off. Shoes, socks, shirt, tie, jacket, no pants, no briefs
Feb 15, 2010 2:52 am

The behavioral interview can make or break your hiring process. Try googling “behavior-based questions” on the internet to get an idea of what kind of questions they are likely to ask. I did that, and I practiced about 10 different scenarios where I “showed I was capable of leadership” or “completed a project independently” etc. etc and I still got rejected by Jones after the interview. My RL gave me the silver bullet and I got through. Also, be ready to tell what an awesome experience you had while visiting an FA at a local Jones office. Good luck. - rc

Feb 15, 2010 4:31 am

Lack of pride has nothing to do with door knocking. It’s like a small business and people want to see you when you’re new to them in the area. I’m not gonna trust some guy that just called me on the phone. But maybe if the guy comes to see me I would give them a chance.



If I was “more into the analytical, quantitative methods of finding the fair value of a stock” I would go to be analyst or just stayed at the university to get my MS in Finance. I learned that in intro to FIN 381 my friend and most people I talk to don’t care too much to hear about it, they wanna know some rates and what money they can get.



Lastly, nobody is going to day-trade their way to retirement. They’ll day-trade their way into poverty because they “think” they know what they’re doing. And the model isn’t flawed. I haven’t seen Jones merging or going out of business or even laying anyone off in these tuff times.



Welp, thats all I have to say about that.

Feb 15, 2010 6:59 am
dlc008:

Lack of pride has nothing to do with door knocking. It’s like a small business and people want to see you when you’re new to them in the area. I’m not gonna trust some guy that just called me on the phone. But maybe if the guy comes to see me I would give them a chance.

If I was “more into the analytical, quantitative methods of finding the fair value of a stock” I would go to be analyst or just stayed at the university to get my MS in Finance. I learned that in intro to FIN 381 my friend and most people I talk to don’t care too much to hear about it, they wanna know some rates and what money they can get.

Lastly, nobody is going to day-trade their way to retirement. They’ll day-trade their way into poverty because they “think” they know what they’re doing. And the model isn’t flawed. I haven’t seen Jones merging or going out of business or even laying anyone off in these tuff times.

Welp, thats all I have to say about that.

Another hint, don't quote Forrest Gump in your interview, makes you sound stupider than you really are.
Feb 15, 2010 7:43 am

Mr. Blonde was a crazy guy. I keep Forrest Gump quotes to a minimum.

Feb 18, 2010 3:37 am
mlgone:

[quote=richchick] The behavioral interview can make or break your hiring process. Try googling “behavior-based questions” on the internet to get an idea of what kind of questions they are likely to ask. I did that, and I practiced about 10 different scenarios where I “showed I was capable of leadership” or “completed a project independently” etc. etc and I still got rejected by Jones after the interview. My RL gave me the silver bullet and I got through. Also, be ready to tell what an awesome experience you had while visiting an FA at a local Jones office. Good luck. - rc[/quote]

I will be honest…anyone that has to google that to pass a EJ exam is not for the business.

    I'm with you there. You are really over-thinking this thing. If you have to bone up to pass a personality test, you have bigger issues than getting in at EdJ. Just be honest.   HINT: Jones wants people who admit they don't always want to play nice with others. We're a one-guy-in-an-office kind of place, after all.
Feb 18, 2010 8:47 am

Had the interview today. Didn’t really practice or anything, just had my resume in front of me and pulled stories from my past jobs for answers to her questions. She liked me and told me we would schedule my last f2f interview once the results of my background check come in in 3-5 days. Thanks to any of the people that aren’t d-bags that posted on here.

Feb 18, 2010 2:58 pm

congrats on moving on dlc but let me help with something…when you
said EJ has not been laying people off, you were severely mistaken. 
You always here sales is a Numbers game, well that is what EJ is
playing, a numbers game.  You’ll get hired and fly up to St. Louis and
spend a week learning how to knock on doors.  Hundreds of people will
be there and you’ll have about 15-20 people in your class.  On average,
about 2-3 people in your class will make it to PDP and on average, EJ
will fire all but 1 person per class after 3-5 years.  They essentially
send out a small army to knock on doors, market the firm, and bring in some business, but
get rid of them and give the business to tenured FA’s.  A girl in
Charlotte needed to make one more sale to get to PDP.  She managed to get
a $500,000 sale (in mutual funds) and should have gone to PDP. 
However, EJ fired her the day before the check came in.  Now a senior
FA has that $500,000

Feb 18, 2010 3:00 pm

"And the model isn’t flawed. I haven’t seen Jones merging or going out
of business or even laying anyone off in these tuff times."

Also, that is false, they just had to sell all of their European Branch/Offices at an extreme loss

Feb 18, 2010 11:35 pm
donte_drink&drive:

congrats on moving on dlc but let me help with something…when you said EJ has not been laying people off, you were severely mistaken.  You always here sales is a Numbers game, well that is what EJ is playing, a numbers game.  You’ll get hired and fly up to St. Louis and spend a week learning how to knock on doors.  Hundreds of people will be there and you’ll have about 15-20 people in your class.  On average, about 2-3 people in your class will make it to PDP and on average, EJ will fire all but 1 person per class after 3-5 years.  They essentially send out a small army to knock on doors, market the firm, and bring in some business, but get rid of them and give the business to tenured FA’s.  A girl in Charlotte needed to make one more sale to get to PDP.  She managed to get a $500,000 sale (in mutual funds) and should have gone to PDP.  However, EJ fired her the day before the check came in.  Now a senior FA has that $500,000

  Is somebody bitter? Holding reps to performance standards is not called "laying off" - they weren't cut for lack of corporate activity. This is called "cutting out the dead weight".   Jones has some of the lowest production standards in the industry, so if these guys were cut by Jones, they'd have been eaten alive at the breakfast buffet at some of the wirehouses.   Your "I-know-a-gal" anecdote doesn't pass the smell test to me. She only needed 26 accounts, $2250 Net and XXX number of prospects to qualify for PDP - - - AFTER 17 weeks in the field. My guess is she was either really low in account numbers or wasn't prospecting, and they weren't going to let one big sale save a person who otherwise wouldn't cut it.   Consider it a mercy killing, because there are a lot of guys I've seen pass through PDP who probably shouldn't have been sent, who later starve and have to leave anyway.