Vantaggi
AXA Advisors is great at teaching concept/story selling to newcomers. They also have a strong line of (life) insurance and annuity products that makes the sale easy for the right clients. If you manage to pass the initial hurdle of $3,000 of production credits (6 month probation period), you will be given some form of salary (as a draw) that can extend up to 3 years. Benefits are pretty good too and includes a pension down the line. Depending on the office you are in, you can potentially have access to some very experienced advisors with whom you can partner with.
Svantaggi
It is first and foremost a sales position. If you are in the traditional advisor position, be ready to start contacting all your friends and family to get you started in addition to going out and prospecting through networking or cold/warm calling. If you are in the 403(b) division, get ready to eat your pride and walk school campus with the hopes of meeting teachers even when school policy technically forbids you to be there. Thought you CAN have access to some very experienced advisors, they don't always seem to care about your success (which is kind of natural since I'm sure they see a lot of people come in and go). You really have to develop mentor and partner relationships early on if you want to succeed. Also, AXA Advisors is primarily an insurance carrier. If you are big on investments through mutual funds, if you want to be more of a fee-based financial planner, AXA may not be the right place for you.