Franklin Templeton Investments Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great benefits, great people, lots of opportunities to learn and grow, community service program is excellent

Cons – Can be too 'corporate' and structured/hierarchical

Advice to Senior Management – Be open to feedback/listen, be self-aware.

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

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments

Pros – A company that really focuses on developing people, leveraging talent across organizations, and decision making that isn't siloed. Very strong in terms of valuing integrity and doing things the right way and making decisions for the long-term.

Cons – The decision making can be slow since it is very consensus driven. However, the net result is once people are on-board, there is a strong commitment to moving things through the finish line.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work, and focus on people in addition to clients and results.

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

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for less than a year

Pros – Benefits!!! and free gym, free coffee, nice facilities

Cons – Too slow to make things happen in technology and using older technologies and older computers. Their "Next Generation Computing" was Windows 7 and Office 2010.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more agile and open to ideas

– I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The opportunities for advancement are endless. In addition, FTI trains you in any position you might want to pursue. There are excellent benefits, great salaries but overall the best reason to work there is the quality and high caliber of the people.

Cons – Franklin Templeton is tied to the performance of the stock market, and therefore during bad times they are forced to reduce staff. In addition, many of the job functions are being moved from nationwide to San Mateo, California.

Advice to Senior Management – Learn to challenge the people in your departments but also listen to them as people. There are many times upper management defers to HR rather than dealing with problems themselves. If you supervise someone, communicate with him or her before sending them on to HR.

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

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for less than a year

Pros – It is a great company that has a friendly environment. The training was superb and taught me all of the basics of mutual funds and policies behind them. Co-workers were very supportive and many were really down to earth.

Cons – The pressure to deliver in this department is apparent. Most of the new hires are new Graduates but many do not hold a college degree. Salary is set at $30,000 with a possible bonus of $1000. The next direct promotion is only a $3,000 upgrade in your salary. If you want to make more than $40,000 a year then you would have to make a lateral move into a different department besides customer service. Great benefits but must be vested with the company for a full 5 years to receive all of the retirement benefits you put in. Overall, it is a great place to work and get your feet wet if you have no other place to go. It is a call center environment so you must be on your toes to be answering call after call all day long. It is a high-turn over job.

Advice to Senior Management – Reward those who went through a 4-year degree and stay up to the standards of the rest! $30,000 a year comes out to about $900/biweekly paycheck after taxes. Which is only $50 more than a biweekly check from Unemployment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Nice office environment - newish, attractive campus setting, cafteria, free gym, hours
(no OT)

Cons – Very micromanaged, all phone calls were recorded, you were graded and forced to follow a script even if it didn't make sense, or you didn't get credit for the call

Advice to Senior Management – Don't let yourself be brown nosed by a kissup. Mgmt should set a good example and be degreed and have all basic licenses.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great Mutual fund managers and products. Very strong training and benefits.

Cons – Very little management compensation is tied to job or company performance. Pay structure is salary based for non-selling jobs.

Advice to Senior Management – Apply more emphasis to a product's profitability for all staff involved.

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

Former Employee – worked at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – People are genuinely friendly
Those with an entrepreneurial spirit who want to work in a corporate environment could do well. FTI likes "big picture" thinkers
San Mateo Campus is an excellent facility with good amenities like gym, cafe, employee services
Benefits are excellent and 401k matching is exceptional
It's surprisingly easy to wind up working there for many, many years

Cons – Base salaries may not be market-competitive
Decisions are VERY consensus-driven, making innovation and agility difficult
The friendly and relationship-oriented environment makes it hard to have difficult conversations. Those with direct/blunt communication styles face a tough time at this company
Financial services is highly regulated and FTI is fairly conservative. Getting things done involves multiple layers of approval and revision, which can be frustrating and painstakingly slow.

Advice to Senior Management – Feedback and succession planning happens in a bubble making it difficult for employees to really understand their strengths/weaknesses. Open up the feedback loop.
External consultants do NOT always have better answers. The staff is surprisingly talented and accomplish great things if you give them a chance to take prudent risks.

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

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – Everyone is always willing to help whenever you need assistance with something important, and the superior ranks are very good charismatic and caring people.

Cons – Wish the working conditions were better though, I feel like there should be more interactive places inside the firm where the employees get the chance to get to know each other better.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Franklin Templeton Investments full-time

Pros – Good people, good culture, good work-life balance

Cons – Experience really depends on the part of the organization