Fidelity Investments Reviews

I have been working at Fidelity Investments

Pros – Good people, Good environment, reasonable work life balance. Comparative level of success with offshore teams. Performance review process was reasonably clear as work had been done to improve on better linking this with the bonus to differentiate between staff.

Cons – Pay could be improved, transport links to office were not good, if you missed the private coach slot due to a late train then you had to pay £20 for a taxi to the office.

Advice to Senior Management – Put more effort into Talent management and talent retention by providing increased opportunities for rising stars to grow their career within the company rather than moving on.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Large, well known company so good on your CV.

Cons – Lots of back stabbing, fake people, bad bonus, hardly any pay rise, very political, doesnt have a smooth working process and getting data is hard as there are so many sources. You have to know people to be able to get data!

Advice to Senior Management – Please look after your staff more instead of brown-nosing the whole time.

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

I worked at Fidelity Investments

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.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Fidelity Investments

Pros – Strong brand name, career development, you can work anywhere else after being at Fidelity Investments. Growing the business even now.

Cons – Much politics, senior management seem very remote due to number of management layers, left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing.

Advice to Senior Management – Make sure the workforce are all driving in the same direction, cut down management layers and costs that go with them.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Fidelity Investments

Pros – Extremely well recognised in the City and a lot of sway with companies and brokers; great opportunities to learn. A lot of freedom to run your own diary and pursue ways that you think will add value to the research process.

Cons – Most of the fund managers and other analysts have their own agenda and so it can be quite fragmented in terms of communication, and accordingly recognition, unless you really make an effort.

Advice to Senior Management – Because of the size of the company, it seems that there is not much meritocracy at the lower levels of the organisation, with not much difference in pay or recognition for those that put in the extra mile.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Work Life balance is very good.Work from home helps in case of emergenices.

Cons – Growth is stagnant as the company is not hiring

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend