This was an absolute mess from start to finish. I wish I’d have saw the reviews for the position and the hiring process here before even taking the recruiters phone call. I could have saved my time and PTO. 5 interviews. In person interviews were disorganized and frequently late. 4 people involved in the process and no one seemed to communicate. This was the only time in my life I have been happy to not be selected for a job. It tells you something when only 23% of current WMA's recommend applying for this 6 figure position. I was contacted by a recruiter in May for the WMA job. I initially glanced past it because I am happy with my current job but a 95k base + bonus was hard to ignore. My screening with the recruiter went well and I was contacted by TIAA's staffing to set up an in person interview. Took the afternoon off and went down to meet the director. 20 minutes late, she finally came out to greet me. Oh well, I though she is probably a busy person. The interview went well and she told me that I would be hearing from another director in the next week. He actually called within the week and that also went well. Then it was silence for another 2 weeks, then the staffing agent emailed to set up a role play with the director again. I emailed the director thanking her for having me back in and asking if there was any case information to review before the meeting. I then heard nothing for 5 days. Again this interview started almost 20 minutes late, then she gave me her role play sheet instead of the one meant for me. The role play went well with me examining the case and coming up with solutions to some glaring holes in the fictional client’s plan. She then told me how their planning process works, you are basically there to ask questions and delve into the clients personal life and then send off the information for others to put together the plan. She then coached me about their "more personalized" way of planning. Asking questions about hobbies, family members and basically off financial planning topics. I received the "coaching" well and went back over the role play. As another reviewer stated, they do this so that they can see your "coach ability". I again did well and she complimented me on my questioning and ability to take feedback and apply it immediately. She told me that I did very well and she was excited to move forward. She said that I would hear from her boss for another interview in 1 or 2 weeks and that if I did not hear from him to email her. She said she is very bad about returning emails as I had seen and to make sure I contacted her if I did not hear from him so she could move the process along. A week passed and then 2 so I email her, nothing. Another week goes by and I email her again, nothing. So I start reading reviews about the actual position as I did not realize you can search by individual position here. Terrible. I had read a few of them before but had not saw all the WMA reviews together before. One guy compared it to working in North Korea and the rest seemed to be just as glowing. I thought to myself, even if I do get this offer, I am going to have to think long and hard about taking it and have a serious discussion with the director. I called the staffing agent to ask her if she had heard anything. She apologized and said that the managing director was notorious for her poor communication and that she would reach out to her and email me. Another week went by and still no email so I called again. She apologized again and said that the managing director still hadn't go back to her. A week later I got the canned" we regret to inform you" email. Frankly I was relieved. I currently work for one of the best employers in the country and number one in my city for financial services. After this mess of a process, I was turned off to their whole organization, and after reading some of the other reviews here, it seems that many people have had similar experiences with them across the country. I still see the open position on their career page that has been open since last December. Does it really take them 10 months and 12 interviews before they hire someone? Are they looking for the purple squirrel, super selective in their hiring for a firm that current advisors seem to hate working for, or was their ever a position to begin with. If I had it all to do over, I would have just told the recruiter that I was not interested. TIAA here is some advice, there is a talent shortage of approx 20k advisors a year in this business and the average advisor age is 56 years old currently. You need to do something first to address your current advisors based on the reviews I have seen here and then work on your hiring process if you want to get quality advisors to come to your firm.

Prescreen with recruiter followed by two rounds of interviews that were all virtual. It was based around behavioral type questions. Come prepared and you will do just fine and be sure to come with questions as well.