Fidelity Investments Software Developer reviews

Big Warning: Fidelity is divesting in Boston and New England. They are moving all the jobs they can to Raleigh (NC), Westlake (TX), Ireland, China and India. Every year more Boston teams get sacked and given the "chance" to move 2000mi or more, though usually only 10% take the offer. Be careful if you're not deeply entrenched in the front office, your days are likely numbered. Everyone keeps to themselves. Passing people in the hall, they stare at the floor. In the elevators you could hear a pin drop. Folks are not outgoing and I've seen many teams that sit 10 yards apart and don't know each other at all. This helps breed the internal silos and technical fiefdoms. If you behave gregariously, people will be surprised. Fidelity IT loves to talk about Agile, but we actually use FAM, the Fidelity Agile Methodology. During your interview, ask deep questions about how so called "Agile" teams work and you'll be in for a laugh. FAM is a broken application of Agile and little better than classic waterfall. If you've really learned Agile elsewhere, people are going to laugh at you your first few weeks here. If you're looking to grow rapidly in tech, look beyond Fidelity. Our systems are laughably behind the times, though our "architectural conferences" will swear they're cutting edge (i.e. IE8 anyone, Java 6, Tomcat 5?).

Work life balance is non existent in the support software support role. The office culture is fairly hostile to change or improvments. Constructive critisism is a foreign concept, conform or be ostracized is the unfortunate successful path. The job role, responsabilties continually expand while the workforce shrinks.