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Don't work here. They give former employees negative references, which brought my great interviews at firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other top firms to a screeching halt, despite the fact I had a very good writing sample (as good as a mere 340-word VL comment on each stock can be). I've heard similar complaints from other VL alumni. VL managers are jealous of former employees who leave for greener pastures. The corporate culture is a mix of post office, geriatric ward and frat house. Pay and morale are low, and turnover is high. Lots of arguing, yelling and backstabbing. You will damage your reputation by working here, and you may never work on Wall Street if you work here. I did manage to work at third-tier Wall St. firms afterward, but I was one of the very few. Most VL alumni go back to school or do other things.
I was fired for simply questioning why they asked me to enter fraudulent data into their database. The owner and CEO failed to return my calls about it. I was a stock analyst there. During initial training, my trainer lied to me about the nature of the stock analysis and research required of analysts. He told me VL wanted original research from analysts, but they in fact do not. They simply want you to repeat statements by managers of the subject companies you write about, and to repeat consensus earnings estimates. You could not possibly do your job and meet deadlines otherwise. Consequently, I worked far longer hours than I should have (60+ hours a week). I found out my trainer gave different instructions to trainees, depending upon whether he liked you or not (he doesn't like older trainees). That's why he lied to me. He teaches other new hires to simply repeat management forecasts and consensus, which saves them a lot of time and political trouble. This is his way of negating VL hiring decisions he disagrees with. He is frustrated by the fact he is not involved in the hiring process, and he has a monstrous ego.
I was harassed for doing original research and making non-consensus earnings estimates, which were usually more accurate. E.g., I was asked to call the subject company's CEO for approval of my estimates, and wait for a callback, even if the CEO had never returned my calls before. Such tactics were designed to make me miss deadlines, never mind are unethical and unlawful.
You will work for managers who are less educated than you are, and who will be jealous of you. So they will compensate by ramming their corrections of your research down your throat. One of the research managers, has only an MA in History - no business or Econ. degree. He once sarcastically said to me "ask a co-worker friend to help you, if you have any." One of the editors has only a BA in English. She came to my cubicle once and asked me only what the long-term debt of a subject company was. She left immediately after I answered. Because I thought such a tactic appeared suspicious, I followed her down the hall. She went directly to a manager's office and said "he's arguing with me again." Some argument. Obviously, they were setting me up. That manager later asked me to break the law, and fired me immediately afterward. Previously, I had overheard the above editor complain about me to my trainer in the hall. He said "don't worry, I'll bounce him next time."
Value Line has a bad reputation as an employer. There have been articles in The Wall Street Journal and Business Week about it, despite the fact they carry VL advertising! Ironically, VL has low turnover among managers (of course, they can't go anywhere else). Many editors and managers have been there for more than 30 years. The CEO was recently asked to leave. See the $44 million settlement news. My trainer was obsessed with his IQ score (one point higher than his twin brother's). I gently patted him on the back once and complimented him while he was retrieving a stock quote in the library. In response, he simply gave me a dirty look and said "I don't like to be struck." He used to tell everyone at VL that I had a "checkered career" because VL was not my first job out of college. Well, he took a job as a construction laborer yard after he got laid off during on of the stock market crashes.
Your starting salary will be about 40% lower than the equivalent position on Wall St. The office was a dump. Management is cheap. It seems many analysts are willing to work at VL because they think it is a stepping stone to Wall St. Wrong. Ask them for the names of former VL analysts who work on Wall Street.
Salary is 40% lower than for an equivalent position on Wall Street.
