Fidelity Investments reviews

Ever ask yourself "How can I waste my finance degree AND make myself less marketable at the same time?" Well, have I got a job for you! Sarcasm aside, let's just be brutally honest here. COLLEGE STUDENTS/GRADS PAY ATTENTION!!! Unless you plan to become an advisor (cough...salesman), most of the jobs you will find in the world of personal investments/brokerage services are going to be a CALL CENTER JOB! This is just the nature of the beast, yet something that your career counselor at college probably wont tell you. Call center experience is only a marketable skill to more customer service jobs. I have worked at Fidelity for several years and can honestly say that I feel I have wasted years of my life doing something I have grown to absolutely despise. Dealing with customers on the phone is a life-draining experience. So let's bring it back to Fidelity, shall we? Would you like a real-life sample of what your job will consist of as a "Financial Representative" or "Customer Advocate" at Fidelity? Well, say no more!: 8:00 a.m. - Distribution check request. 8:10 a.m. - Hour long password reset with 90 year old client. (College degree hard at work!) 9:10 a.m. - Distribution check request. 10:10 a.m. - Help client find tax form online. 10:15 a.m. - Why wont my debit card work? 10:25 a.m. - Why wont my credit card work? 10:35 a.m. - Complex multi-leg option trade. 10:45 a.m. - 30 minute password reset with 80 year old client. ( I went to college for this?) Now rinse and repeat this for 30 calls a day, day in and day out. Not exactly what you pictured yourself doing with that shiny, expensive college education, is it? Look...I could go on and on about other details of the job (particularly the wacked-out survey questionnaire Fidelity bases a large portion of your bonus on) but I'll leave that for some other disenchanted soul. Here is the bottom line...if you want to do sales, that is great for you and you will find many career opportunities at any brokerage firm, including Fidelity, and you will make a great living doing so. However, if sales is not your thing then I highly suggest you look elsewhere.

Mediocrity abounds, everyone who loves it is there because they are terrible at what they do, the pay is not remotely competitive (they hang their hat on "Cost of Labor" as the justification), everything is built on tenure rather than talent. They sell new employees on a generous bonus structure, but don't disclose that the bonus that you are sold is in fact unattainable, even in an exceptional year of company and individual performance. The profit sharing is not realized for years. They don't do raises, only at the time of promotion does a high-level salary get adjusted. Leadership also requires you to pretend that you are hybrid by coming into the office 5 days a month, even though you are zooming with people on other floors anyway. Zero transparency on anything; I guess that is to be expected when you are private family co.