Pros
Due to the idealistic marketing Fisher attracted some extremely intelligent, kind and hardworking people. I met individuals that were genuinely invested in the client experience and who really want to make the world of finance a better place. However, the connections that I made with these individuals were mostly centered around our general dissatisfaction with the firm and its direction and we stuck together to help cope with both the mental and moral toll of working here. Benefits are extremely comprehensive, however what they don’t tell you are the terms in which you will receive your 401k match. You are not fully vested until you have been with the firm for ~3 years. This is understandable since it is so generous, but the lack of transparency is just a micro example of the general lack of communication as a whole. The campus is also beautiful which makes the walks you take at lunch to maintain your sanity more enjoyable.
Cons
First and foremost associates are treated horribly. While I can understand from a professional standpoint that we may hold less initial value due to a lack of experience, given Fisher’s staunch believe in farming talent you would think that there would be more opportunity for associates to grow. There is also a general acceptance of more tenured individuals treating you with blatant disrespect. It isn’t uncommon for CSAs to be abused by salespeople. In terms of professional development the skills that you acquire as an associate are not transferable at all, if you are making the decision to start a career with Fisher you need to mentally prepare to tough it out as an associate to be able to be then be transitioned to a position that will further your career. Aside from the role itself the working environment can be harmful. As a POC and a woman it wasn’t uncommon to have two co-workers make problematic comments or engage in inappropriate work conversation although Fisher preaches that it is politically agnostic, there is no question where the general population of the firm stands on things. When I first started I also was relentlessly harassed by more tenured Investment Counsellors. There is an unmistakable fraternity energy that envelops the majority of the more tenured roles and as a young woman there isn’t much of a choice except to grin and bear it because you know that any recourse will only harm yourself. My own experience made Ken’s comments only more poignant especially when it fell to the women of the firm to essentially absolve the company of any wrong doing. Currently with the recent social unrest and the COVID pandemic Fisher’s reaction has continued to be reactive versus proactive. The Diversity and Inclusion committee (which seemed to be directly formed as a result of the comments earlier this year) has done little to address the concerns of BIPOC and women as well as create an environment where individuals actually feel welcome (managers often also participate in non work appropriate conversation). The confidence that I had in Fisher to do the right thing has completely dwindled and I wish they would understand that the issues that do exist are not going to be solved with a few passive emails. Accessibility is also an issue, because of the 10 hour work day, abundant workload and lack of flexibility the firm seems to lose amazing female talent when someone makes the decision to start a family. It is a pretty jarring and uncomfortable power dynamic. A pretty even split of men and women (depending on what you do) fill the associate roles but as soon as you move on to something more lucrative or more important like being an Investment Counsellor or being an analyst there suddenly seems to be a steep drop in female representation. If work from home could be accessible all times not just as an exception during COVID then maybe that would change. Technology is also a huge pain point, you often work with databases and portals that seem to lag by decades. It is hard to efficiently and effectively help clients when you are working with something obsolete. I think investing in more relevant technology would have a huge ROI. I just also want to reiterate how late to the game the response to COVID was, it wasn’t until recently where the attitude wasn’t ambivalence. They general messaging was I know there’s a pandemic but you need to be in office (even though we have WFH technology). It is by grace that Fisher offices did not become epicenters of the disease not by careful planning or safety. Overall my heart is heavy, I really bought into the narrative that Fisher was selling and I am disappointed in the reality.