Pros

Name Recognition
Benefits
less cut-throat than other fin firms
Boston is less hectic than NYC
Diverse educational backgrounds

Cons

Benefits are Scaled Back
It's a Fund Co First and the only unit that matters
managers say one thing and do another

Advice to Senior Management

There are others biz units too. Reward employees. Listen. Practice what you preach. Quality of life is quality of life. Stop stressing employees out.

Pros

Fidelity is a great place to work hard and gain a lot of industry experience. For the most part, the work environment is open and friendly, and universal respect for the Fidelity brand carris over into the job.

Cons

The same job at Fidelity could be completely different; much of that experience is based on the manager you work for. Working for a great manager means being in a job you can be proud of and opportunity growth for people who work for it. On the other hand, working for an average or poor manager can mean very long hours, being micro-managed, little appreciation for your efforts, and limited opportunities for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Open up the lines of communications between senior managers/managers and their employees.

Pros

People were fantastic! I never worried about the stability of the firm, or the leadership of the company... except during the Lawson years. Difficulty moving out of the phone site.

Cons

Lack of opportunity as a manager to really progress. Log jam at the next level. Didn't want to do the "manager merrry-go-round."

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to promote via meritocracy. Find ways to improve on leadershipd development with your front line leaders/managers. Provide opportunity quicker to fast track E or O performers.

Pros

Small organization in India; High level of Client support and a lot of work on development projects. Good exposure to domain knowledge.

Cons

No onsite opportunities. Senior management very poor. Far away from city centre. Very bad canteen. A lot of cost-cutting initiatives in place.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to communicate more to the employees about the developments at India offices and show more empathy towards employees instead of just making a lot of show through HR policies.

Pros

The high pay, good hours, and manageable workload.

Cons

The opportunity for upward movement is limited and many people end up staying in the same position for many many years. Location of the site is located far from any major metropolitan area.

Advice to Senior Management

More rotational programs available for employees interested in exploring different business units.

Pros

Good opportunities, Great people, Collegiate, Focused on core business,

Cons

Needs to focus more on internal career development

Advice to Senior Management

Needs to focus more on internal career development. Speed up decision making process. Give more autonomy to middle management.

Pros

Used to be a good company to work for, still a good brand on Resume, colleagues at the Analyst & Fund Manager level were smart.

Cons

Poor pay. Management constantly changes the strategic direction - every 6 months the investment team is presented with a new plan. Get the impression they are constantly in fear of losing their job as performance is pretty bad, so get out of jail card is a new 'plan'. Building fiefdoms is a key activity of middle-management, especially on the DOR team. HR just seems to follow management around to see what they are required to do next - no strategic direction at all, 'yes-man' mentality. Fidelity pays so badly that it really is not a long-term career option - benefits to your Resume after 1 year are more or less the same as after 5 years and even 10 - so makes sense to leave after 3-4 years. However, the most disappointing thing about this company, is that there is no concern for employees, you are just a cog in the wheel.

Advice to Senior Management

This used to be a great company before 2005. There is probably still a chance to turned it around.

Pros

Great people, lots of opportunities.

Cons

Upper management is always changing. No consistency. Much more political than it used to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Take out the revolving door. If someone is going to be hired at the upper echelon, they should move to Boston and make a committment.

Pros

Fidelity provides an excellent benefits package, including profit sharing, education reimbursement for professional designations etc. Great technology and tools to do your job.

Cons

Compensation plans change constantly, usually every 6 months. Very high turnover among upper management which means constant change in overall direction of company. Compensation is very poor when compared to amount of work expected - very high volume job with very little individual recognition. Capped compensation plans limit ability to stay at Fidelity as a "career."

Advice to Senior Management

Find a compensation plan that fairly rewards employees for the amount of work being done and revenue being generated from their efforts. Quit changing compensation plans every 6 months - creates a very negative working attitude. There are very talented people working at Fidelity which need to be recognized for what they bring to the company.

Pros

The best work-personal life balance (I hardly worked more than 9 hours a day during 3 years).
Good compensation compared to service providers, less variable & more fixed pay.
People are very professional and diplomatic. Very less politics. Management is approachable.
Good facilities like free transport, food etc.

Cons

Quality of work is not good, all the time you'll be doing the maintenance and enhancement work. Slow in adopting new technologies. Not the company to look for, if you want to stay technical.
Top heavy, there are almost equal number of managers & directors compared to developers (hope i'm not exaggerating it too much :) ). No growth prospects.
Everything is driven from US, management is a very good obeyer of their US counterparts. Though they talk about taking lot of good initiatives I hardly saw them being useful.
In fact the management is good & capable (by their qualification & experience) but fail to get good amount of work from US. Though FMR India is a captive centre for more than 6 years now, there are more critical projects with Infy & Patni than FMR India.
Very less onsite opportunities, especially for techies.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at bringing key projects to FMR India. Have a properly structured hierarchy in place.