Associate Software Engineer (Leap Program)
Pros
Good benefits (compared to other companies with the same base salary). 401k matches up to 7% of your salary. Total compensation (bonus, profit sharing, retirement contributions) becomes high if you stay there for a long time (5+ years). In general, difficult to get fired unless you really mess up. There are established Leap communities to hang out with, where ever you are placed after completing the Leap Program.
Cons
Low base salary and total compensation for new graduates. If you don't plan on staying at Fidelity for at least 5 years, your total compensation would be better if you moved around companies or started your career at a different company. Average software engineers. There are a few software engineers that perform above and beyond. There are several that plan to do the bare minimum and collect a paycheck. The technical interviews were not very hard, and the ability of the software engineers reflects this. This is not a great place for top (new grad) software engineers. It takes too much time (5 years) for the total compensation to be worth it. Risk of disliking the business unit you are placed in after the Leap program. You don't get to talk directly with your after-placement manager, your Leap manager will place you after getting to know your interests and personality. I feel like 1 in 3 Leap graduates are not satisfied with their role after placement. With some bad luck, you can be placed in a business unit that offers no growth in useful technologies, no learning opportunities, and no help from senior engineers (my experience). Or with some good luck, you could be using the newest technologies with good mentors, and learning a lot. In general, they expect you to stay at least a year in your current business unit before moving, but you can tell within 6 months whether or not if the business unit and its progress are good enough for you. It is a huge gamble to enter the Leap program, knowing there is a decent chance the business unit you will be placed in will not be that worthwhile. It's up to you if you want to roll the dice. Emphasis on company loyalty. They tell you to focus on the "product knowledge", which is useful to you only as long as you are working for Fidelity, but it's not great if you plan to leave Fidelity at any time in your life. They entice you with a total compensation that increases exponentially from 0 to 5 years. This means a below average total comp at 0 years and an above average total comp after 5 years. Many are promoted based on years of service. Even if you perform twice as well, you will not be promoted twice as quickly - it would be better for you to just switch jobs. Slow moving technology. The company is slowly moving towards agile, cloud, and other new technologies, but change is extremely slow for financial companies. This means you might not be developing skills that are useful in your career the moment you leave Fidelity. Fidelity claims to be a technology company that specializes in finance, but improvements in technology are often hindered by business desires, such as excessive spending on contractors, and not enough spending on code refactoring and architecture improvements. Its not great for your career to be constantly one step behind everyone else.
