Pros
If you play the political game they will put resource into you and depending on the team you’re in and level you’re at there is good internal mobility across the firm (less so into prestigious roles PM etc)
Cons
It took management at Vanguard close to 4 years to fix the issues in the IBOR team. This caused major distress and multiple analysts left including myself. Many of us were vocal but it felt as if we were getting punished for speaking up. Promotions set at 7% so make sure you negotiate into the company. They will try and lock you into the IBOR team so don’t be fooled by HR telling you how easy it is to get into the front office from here. You'll need to move across to the Service team or a different department to challenge for front office roles and even then its not easy. You're better off challenging for them externally. Also, this is a trade processing role arguably back office and not an investment analyst role. The title is very misleading and the system you use is NeoXam which isn’t industry wide. RTO is quite strict and although they talk about flexibility it is minimal. I've listened to interviews from my desk and have heard management giving airy fairy responses to potential employees. You're in 4 days a week as a minimum with potential flexibility of 1 day which has to be coordinated across the team to ensure that over 50% are in. Sickness and holidays have to be factored in also. They might relax this in the future but currently it is not flexible. I wouldn’t join this team unless you’re a fresh graduate or a few years in. You’ll come in at a junior level and it’ll take you years to get senior enough to be able to challenge for more interesting roles at VG. Context IBOR starts at IC4 and FO typically starts at S2 (3 promotions). Also, specialist promotions can take years to get. Most teams throughout the organisation start at S1 so you’ll need to be promoted at least once to be able to challenge for those roles. Wherever you’re working currently, the grass is unlikely to be greener in this team! Make sure that you complete thorough due diligence before joining.. speak to current analysts on LinkedIn etc this could be a good move for some but be careful! Vanguard culture is very management dominant. Your manager plays a crucial role in your development, promotions, internal moves etc. If you do not have a manager that cares for you and the team you will have less of a chance to develop at VG. This is obvious within IOPs were some teams get regular secondments, promotions etc and other teams leave analysts stagnant for years. Whilst I was there the majority of managers were great and extremely supportive. However, the IBOR team drew the short straw but hopefully they can change that going forward. When interviewing take extra care to be sure that the manager is someone you'd like to work with and even ask them for success stories within their team to be sure. This will be very important for your development.