Fidelity Investments Reviews

I worked at Fidelity Investments full-time for less than a year

Pros – -Upper management open to suggestions and highly willing to help
-Very considerate about taking time off
-Great place to begin working to learn about financial services industry

Cons – -Internship positions generally require connections to secure

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Challenging opportunities, varied job options, carreer path, good benefits

Cons – Depending on role requries long hours. Site strategy to different locations limit jobs in Boston.

Advice to Senior Management – Get to know better the capabilities of individuals that span beyond their job responsibilities

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – High bonus percentages. Private shares. Good salary. Good medical benefits. Large retirement contributions.

Cons – Overly political environments. Highly matrixed organization.

Advice to Senior Management – Remember your people are your greatest assets, treat them accordingly.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – - My co-workers are amazing people. Everyone is very friendly, outgoing, and generally positive. I look forward to seeing them every day and miss them on the weekends!
- The training is bar none. They give you extensive training to pass the Series 7 and 63 exams, making it almost impossible for you to fail, and every new skill set you master is accompanied by at least a week of intense training.
- The work environment is very pleasant. My desk is very spacious, the break rooms are well stocked, and we have huge windows with views of the mountains.
- If you're willing to work hard and network with people, the growth potential for your career at Fidelity is unlimited.

Cons – - The pay is less than it should be. Considering the complexity and responsibility on our shoulders with all the regulations and rules, we should be paid much more than we are.
- Some managers exhibit favoritism towards employees who are clearly incompetent at their jobs but are likable people.
- The micromanaging of your schedule is obnoxious, but it's pretty standard in a call center environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your phone reps more money! We work our butts off to take care of the customers who are not always very pleasant, and we should be fairly compensated.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Fidelity does a great job at teaching their employees the basics of financial services. Their benefits are some of the absolute best in the industry as well. 401k plan match is 7% dollar-for-dollar with profit sharing of 10%. Health plans are especially good. The pay is also fair for a discount broker. Ultimately, Fidelity is one of the best places to work in Financial Services, because they have a long tradition of placing top priority on the customer experience. The Johnsons are good people who truly value their customers and their employees. When you are coached, it will be to whether or not the customer's needs were met, not whether you were able to sell them on an inappropriate product. Even working in sales, I always made more money off great customer surveys than I ever did due to sales results (although sales results are important as well). Lastly, the company is very conservative on a number of different topics. You are very unlikely to become involved in litigation working for Fidelity, because they stay as far away from "the line" as possible. Also, due to their conservative nature, FIdelity tends to be a safe place during times of layoffs unless you work in middle management.

Cons – As great as Fidelity is, they are not without fault. Many negative things that I can say about Fidelity, I can also say for other firms as well. The Johnsons are good people. They do a great job at spreading their gospel of customer service, but sometimes the message is lost on middle-management. Middle-management tends to stress too much on day-to-day figures such as Sales, number of calls taken, and the "customer experience indicator" (surveys) rather than focusing on the actual interactions that reps are having with customers.
Managers (especially in sales) also tend to not be entirely clear on what they expect from their employees. My opinion is that this is done intentionally, because they know that they can't coach you to sell something inappropriate that makes them look better on a piece of paper, but oftentimes, they won't call you out on it either if you do in fact do just that.
Like most big firms, Fidelity can be bureaucratic in many of their operations. The main problem (which is a good problem to have) is that Fidelity is a leader in Employee retirement plans such as 401(k)'s and 403(b)'s and a leader in personal investments such as IRA's. These are technically two separate companies, but under one roof under one name. I've worked in both sides of the house, and it can be annoying to go back and forth with colleagues on the other side of the fence who have these incorrect preconceived notions about your side of the firm. It's exhausting, but it's part of working for a big company.
Technology is one of the biggest headaches. I can honestly say that while Fidelity invests billions of dollars into technology, much of this is to improve the website. Don't get me wrong, we have a great website for customers, but they don't spend nearly enough money trying to improve quality of life for the employees. Their systems are so complicated, it was almost always easier to tell the customer how to do transaction online rather than through a rep (which is probably what they're aiming for). Also, in this modern world of e-mail, skype, facebook, etc. Many of our employees are still unable to e-mail customers which would be fine if other firms kept the same policy. Other firms have changed with the times. While, I can say that Fidelity is "on their way." They've also been "on their way" to implementing e-mail correspondence for years now. I mentioned in the Pro's that they are conservative from a legal perspective. This is where some of the cons of being conservative come into play.
Lastly, middle management is way too politically correct. It's annoying to many employees of all backgrounds. This especially rears its ugly head in the form of reverse discrimination. Being PC is fine as long as you continue to hire good people. Usually Fidelity does a good job in hiring the right people, but occasionally I've seen them compromise just to check a box that they're a diverse firm of employees. This can especially become annoying if you're looking to get promoted.

Advice to Senior Management – In terms of technology, please change with the times by adding e-mail, voice calling, etc. and force your middle management directors to do the same. Continue to stick to your standards of excellence when it comes to customer service and encourage middle management to bring their standards up a few notches. Don't let this company become so large that you can't effectively manage your people. If you do, the culture that you've built at Fidelity will be lost one day.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Fidelity Investments

Pros – Great overall comp package & culture.

Cons – very hiarchical when it comes to moving on to the next role.

Advice to Senior Management – take your time hiring people for the right roles

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Fidelity Investments

Pros – Absolutely great people and good culture with good profit sharing.

Cons – They do not pay competitively and are on the low end. Raises are nothing to write home about. One needs to leave here and come back to get a significant bump in pay.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great benefits, excellent training and if you are working in one of the large sites, there is lots of opportunity for movement. Pay isn't based on commission and Fidelity has a great pipeline for business so the leads come to you.

Cons – Pay is lower than at other firms and the company is super conservative. Guidance and recommendations will be based on tools with almost zero actual input from the financial reps themselves. If you want to interact with clients, you'll either be on the phones or in a branch. The branches have very little room for advancement and depending on the manager, can be very frustrating and demoralizing. Average tenure for an Account Executive is less than a year due to attrition.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote from within in order to increase job satisfaction. Employees work hard to advance and when they don't, they will leave.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – This is undoubtedly the best company to work for. The opportunity for growth and personal development are endless. It is great to know that I am part of the Fidelity family."

Cons – At first I worked an undesirable shift, but after a few months of hard work and dedication I was able to move to an earlier shift."

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Fidelity Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – Compensation seems fairly structured to reward performance. Company has a great nationwide presence, excellent brand and reputation, and comprehensive financial product and service lineup to meet nearly any client's needs.

Cons – As with most large firms, there is bureaucracy. Complex service issues take too long to resolve. Upper management seems to take too long to process and implement feedback from reps. Some services, such as in-house managed money, have a lot of room for improvement.

Compensation structure for branch reps (account executives) is skewed too heavily at short term performance rather than long term.

Overall, if you work in a branch, the quality of your work environment depends largely on your manager and his / her boss. Some are micro-managers who have no perspective and others a great people.

Advice to Senior Management – Solicit feedback from reps on everything to their feelings about management to compensation to products and services. Let the reps know you understand their views and what you are going to do about it.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend