Fidelity Investments reviews

Ever ask yourself "How can I simultaneously destroy my career prospects and waste my expensive college degree?" Well then , Fidelity Investments in Jacksonville has the perfect job for you! First, it's a call center people...through and through. You will talk to dozens of people on the phone. Every...single...day. Eventually, that "ding!" sound of a new call coming in will haunt your dreams. Most people don't last more than a year. You can either go the sales or service route. If you go service, there is very little room for advancement. In addition, if you move into whats called a "High Net Worth" service role, you will be responsible for a HUGE range of knowledge and actions without commensurate pay. One call could have you rushing to get a complex option trade placed within minutes of market close, while a pushy day trader berates you, and the next call could be spending an hour helping a 90 year old man reset his password as you bang your head on you desk asking "I went to college for this?!" If you go sales, then get used to working long, awkward hours and having your success defined in how many more calls you can take than the next guy/gal. The coupe de grace (ATTENTION ALL RECENT COLLEGE GRADS): None of the jobs they offer in Jacksonville are real finance jobs. They're just customer service/sales jobs parading as something fancier. Even the "Financial Advisor" roles are just sales, albeit well paying. Also, call center jobs are only marketable to other customer service careers. Having a call center job on your resume will actually HARM your chances of landing a job in world of ACTUAL finance. So, before you go thinking "I'll just work here for a year or two to get something on my resume"....DON'T DO IT. None of what I just said should reflect poorly on the company itself, because Fidelity is a great company in terms of culture, mission, and values. That's undeniable. The problem is very specific to the extent of their operations in Jacksonville being call center based and that these are very stressful and career-limiting work environments. Consider yourself warned!

Metrics. Matrices. Benchmarks. Expectations. Goals. Forget Fidelity being a Finance company. Their business, what they do best, is perfecting the art of micromanagement. Think you've learned how to do your job effectively? Think again. Every few months they've designed or redesigned a new system for you to learn to use because it is NEW AND IMPROVED with many more reporting features to keep an eagle eye on every single insignificant facet of your job performance - all in the name of assigning a number and a statistic to what you do that they can then set the goal for just high enough that they can use your performance as a reason to short you on a bonus or deny you a raise. And they have no sympathy for their front line workers being abused on the phones either. They cleared out their offices and sent everyone home in March, but everything else has been business as usual ever since. No changes in expectations even an inch even though everybody in the trenches has been putting up with 3-4x the work they were doing 100 days ago. No guaranteed bonuses. No time off availability. Overtime has been expected and mandatory from the beginning, otherwise you're labeled as "not a team player" and "hurt your Fidelity Brand" FIdelity Green is for Greed.