Fidelity Investments Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

-Plenty of Time off
- Good Pay
-Good Benefits
-If you want to advance with the company , you know how to do it and the management is very supportive.
-Always opportunity for growth
- Loved my Coworkers
- Calm relaxed environment
-Company is very generous with its money (i.e. Upper management always supplying funding for team supervisors to buy their respective teams lunch)

Cons

- Good Ole boy system, Very political.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what your doing

Pros

The team I work on is very cohesive and an overall positive experience. When we get to do "agile" it works very well.

Cons

Working with other groups within the organization tends to be very cumbersome. Working together seems to be more of the exception than the rule. Performance reviews are all about how well you're known to the organization, not what you've contributed to your team or how well you work. Management doesn't seem all that receptive to problems brought up by the employees.

Pros

- Great 401k match and profit sharing benefits
- Good Healthcare options (although the prices have significantly increased over the years)
- Friendly co-workers
- Set review schedules for annual increases and bonuses (this varies by group)

Cons

- Lack of up to date technology for employees to use to complete their jobs effectively (ex. it is now 2011 and my computer still has Office 2003 on it and I am working on a laptop that was given to me 4 years ago and probably was someone else's before I got and it takes 30 mins to boot up each day)

- It doesn't pay to start at the bottom at Fidelity as you will be penalized for always coming in at the bottom when it comes to compensation, if you are able to get another job you will be given the bottom of the pay grade when others coming in from outside are given the mid range

- Many people have to leave the company and then come back to obtain the correct compensation (they do not reward employees who have been with the company for years)

- No professional career development opportunities as they have a university that doesn't offer any classes in the South and they are not willing to pay for travel to the north for training

- Some Managers (mine in particular) talk behind employees backs to others and can not keep HR related confidential information to themselves

- They will hire from outside the company, bring them in at a higher title (making much more) and ask you to train them and technically they do the same job as you

- They do not predict project staffing needs correctly, waiting until there is an immediate need and then removing associates from current in flight projects (with no one to replace them) and put them on this new project and magically expect the associates prior work to get done or burden already over capacity associates to take on the work

- Management will asks for the employees to fill out a satisfaction survey each year and then they will have a bunch of hoopla a couple of months after the results are in asking what they can do to change things and then POOF we never hear about it again (did anything change, if so no one tells us)

Advice to Senior Management

- Compensate your employees correctly and promote associates based on merit and not who you know. Those employees who come in at the bottom should not be told by Management that there is nothing they can do to compensate them correctly because of the associates starting place in the company (I was told this on more than one occasion). Those associates who have been on the front line (phones) and have worked their way up to the point on working on projects worth millions of dollars are valuable and have more knowledge then those associates being hired from outside and should be compensated correctly.

- Upgrade your TECHNOLOGY (Office 2003 in 2011 is a joke)

- Get with the times and become more flexible with work arrangements (some groups are allowed to work from home several days a week or when ever needed and others are given a one day a week option)

- TRUST your employees to do the right things and stop putting lay on layer of approves in a process, this just delays time to market

Pros

Fidelity Inv as a culture seems really promising
Benefits are amazing
Pay, training
Oppurtunity everywhere

Cons

Management incompetence led to chaos and work-place resentment.

Advice to Senior Management

Can only speak for my direct management, but: it felt completely bias and clique-y. A good manager wants to further their employees, not step on their heads at attempt to further selves.

Pros

People are friendly. Job is good. Salary is good. Overall it was a very nice experience and I would recommend joining Fidelity.

Cons

No extra-curricular activities on the job site. There should be some opportunities for the employees to spend their time if they are tired.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees at managerial positions should give rewards to their employees so that they can get motivated and put more efforts.

Pros

Salary and to learn more about finance and the systems behind it.

Cons

Long hours which can be stressful.

Advice to Senior Management

Very talented employees might get burned out from high pressure and long hours.

Pros

benefits are good - medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, life ins, some locations have onsite gyms, most locations have cafeterias, time off,
work life balance
opportunity for advancement

Cons

frequent reorgs create a lot of unnecessary noise
frequent manager changes cause day to day disruption, as you have to figure out how to manage your manager
inconsistent messages from first line management
lack of mentoring programs unless you are a new college hire

Pros

Pros would be benefits, vacation, and a laid back culture. Company seems to be adapting to work at home more and more.

Cons

Very behind in software tools, customer web capability, and overall IT development.
Poor training.

Advice to Senior Management

Implement more training and benchmark to other in similar service industries.

Pros

Good pay and good benefits

Cons

Managers are in it for themselves and will do nothing to help you progress to the next level

Pros

-Job security
-Benefits - great 401k matching and profit sharing opportunities

Cons

-Uneducated and unintelligent employees
-Many employees do enough to just get by and are unmotivated to do anything extra
-Multiple unprofessional employees
-Promotions are not awarded to people when they should be

Advice to Senior Management

Take advantage of the economy and get rid of the underperforming employees. At the same time, reward those who have a desire to do a good job and work hard!