What happened to the talent at this firm? Was I hallucinating or was life at the firm better before?
I’m starting to think I was gaslighting myself to think my coworkers were competent professionals. They’re neither competent, nor professionals anymore.
@jt got laid off a year and a half ago. Surprisingly, Fidelity actually still means a lot! It’s not like people outside know what goes on there today.
Having Fidelity on your resume used to mean something and it was a destination employer for competent professionals. Those days are long gone. The "site strategy" started in the 2000's to get cheap, tax optimized labor along with increased offshoring, that's when things began to shift. There are no superstars coming out of Merrimack, Smithfield, or RTP nor are there talented leaders left at the home office. I rarely mention my time there either.
@h2 the Leap program for IT hires newly college grads
Entry level jobs have all been offshored so associates cannot learn from the ground up
The phones are still here. All American.
If you want to rise up from the ground, the phones are the only way to do it.
What changed?
Obviously senior management. It was a process that happened over years but there is no longer leadership.
There are many more levels of middle management that only create problems.
Lower level associates have no voice at all even though they are the true experts being on the front lines. (Once upon a time associates were empowered to make decisions but that is long gone.)
Knowledge attainment is nonexistent. Entry level jobs have all been offshored so associates cannot learn from the ground up. Incompetent managers don’t have any idea how to do the work so they cannot educate associates.
Associates have no incentive to do more than the bare minimum because there are so few opportunities for advancement and compensation rewards are based on favoritism not merit.
So many of the problems are self inflicted by senior management and cascades down the broken chain. If Fidelity were publicly traded with management answering to a Board of Directors, the majority of the poor decisions wouldn’t stand.
The industry has changed to the point where software programs are spitting out results/ recommendations so that is why you can have waiters, retail salesclerks and first entry into the workforce people all of a sudden are financial professionals. I can only speak to wealth management and workplace advisory groups but as long as the person is licensed and have asked clients the appropriate compliance questions then it does not take any true experience or knowledge. It really is a good business model for Fidelity charging clients fees for picking mutual funds (& capturing er's) while having cheaper less skilled labor to peddle. I realize everyone has to start somewhere but gaining a deep understanding of the market, economy and most importantly having the maturity to understand clients' situations takes years of experience and research.
The OP may also be referring to the amount of immaturity one can witness at the sites- the noise levels of laughing and horsing around while trying to have a professional conversation with a client is extremely unprofessional. There is also a substantial amount of inexperienced, immature leaders as well that make it hard to respect.
A lot of the staff rightfully should be concerned about the future of AI as it is not that far of a leap for AI to perform these same scripted, fill in the blanks to sp-t out results roles.
No you are not hallucinating, but the industry has changed so much.
Back when I started here everyone had a college degree from many notable universities: Notre Dame, University of Michigan, Georgetown, etc.
Today Fido resembles WALMart with high schoolers being the face of the company, which I think is on par for the entire industry now.
But Fido certainly does not take pride in its work anymore that went out the door with Ned.
The thing is, Fidelity doesn't face consequences for incompetence.
It seems a bit well insulated by all the regulations around its cash cow streams and the stickiness of its consumer relations.
But even Egypt -- another entity symbolized by the pyramid-- once seemed invincible