Fidelity Investments Associate, Emerging Leader Program reviews

Compensation: Compensation is extremely low for the caliber of people they expect to hire for ELP. They told us they did 'comp' research and that we're in line with other liberal arts grads in the business sector, but for the amount of knowledge and commitment they are asking (jumping around different BUs and delivering business value straight away, commuting over 110 miles a day some months) we are grossly underpaid. Several of us have done research and know we can get at least 25% more at any other comparable role. They tell us that our amazing benefits make up for it, but I don't see many of us, right out of college, using home insurance benefits or "College Success Planning." Those of us holding out are hopeful that our final placement salaries will be a significant increase. Management: Management is not as up-to-par as would be expected for a program that recruits from elite liberal arts colleges. One of the managers has an online degree from a for-profit university and it shows- no critical thought, inability to understand and digest feedback without getting defensive, and has worked her way up using relationship skills without actually being qualified for her position in regard to merit. Her manager, an SVP, is too busy with her other initiatives and only seems to present herself at the "fun" opportunities - team-building sessions, orientation, etc. We as a cohort have no insight into what she is doing for the program or if feedback is being relayed up to her at all. Overall, the management team may be well intentioned but lacks clear direction and minimizes transparency in order to hide the fact that they don't really know what they're doing either. Rotations: While ELP may present itself as a cool opportunity to explore different functions, expect to be disappointed when finding out where you got placed. Rotations are based on "business need," meaning that while you may express interest in a particular field, you may end up in a completely different field. Management will try to make it seem okay by pointing out the "positives," but it doesn't address the fact that you may potentially waste four months doing something you have no interest in doing and you could've spent doing something that would actually bring some clarity to your career options. Final Placement: Placement after the program is supposed to be based the rotation that you matched the most with and enjoyed doing. However, some people get rotations that have no intention of hiring someone from ELP, and get stuck with getting placed in one of their rotations they didn't enjoy or have to scramble to network to see if there are any opportunities available outside of their rotations. Once that process is done and you have your options (assuming you have more than one option), you don't even know salary information until AFTER informally accepting the full-time position- we're supposed to not worry about salary and instead choose the placement option that best "aligns" with our career wants. After this informal acceptance, we then get the "official" offer letter and sign that. I've never heard of an instance where you don't know salary information before accepting a role, but like in many other cases where things in the program don't make sense, there is always a "reason" for the way things are. "Trust the Process" : If I had a penny for every time I heard "Trust the Process"...this is the term used by management as a palliative for the program's serious structural issues. Hate the rotation you're in? There's a reason why you got it, you just have to trust the process. Is your rotation not even close to what your career goals are? There's a reason for that, trust the process. If you ever hear this phrase, beware!