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Technologists are expendable

Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Fidelity Investments for less than 1 year
April 28, 2020
1.0
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

I worked with some very smart people. It's a shame they worked here where they aren't at all valued.

Work isn't challenging at all. You can coast and do nothing all day and slip through the cracks.

Cons

Software engineers at Fidelity are very low on the totem pole, probably a step lower than call center employees if I had to guess.

The compensation is insulting. I went to a competitor in asset management for the same role level and tripled my compensation. You could probably quadruple your compensation by going to Amazon, Google, etc. A senior software engineer with 10 years of experience at Fidelity makes less than an entry-level software engineer at JP Morgan, Bank of America, or Goldman Sachs with no years of experience.

Don't work here unless you are in asset management. Those are the only people who make any real money.

The tech is severely outdated. Some engineers were working in COBOL while I was there. Once again, this is insulting and shows that no effort is made by management to invest in good tech.

Management makes it very clear that technologists provide negative value. We were even told this during our first week. "You are a cost center" -- I can't tell you how many times I've heard this. It's so obvious.

Why do you think there are barely any technologists in the Boston HQ? Instead, they're pushed to the basements of New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Bonus is insulting too. Don't count on that.

People brag about the generous 401k match, but it doesn't kick in for 5 years. That is 5 years you could be working as a technologist at a competing asset manager making triple your compensation.

My first week at Fidelity, a manager told me that technologists are expendable because their job can just be outsourced. Ouch.

This company has no path forward. Mutual funds are a thing of the past now that low-fee ETFs have become so popular. And their brokerage is so outdated.

Advice to Management

It doesn't matter. They're not going to listen. They'll keep surviving on the billions of dollars in fees they collect from their poor-performing mutual funds, despite the fact that most ETFs beat their yearly returns. All because the average investor doesn't know any better.

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