Thread regarding Fidelity Investments layoffs

@rp they don't really cover those topics in depth. I agree that they should -- it's reasonable for them to start off with the expectation that you know Java and Typescript and then teach us framework specific stuff, but they just teach really rudimentary Java and js

@s2 oh, I've seen some of this first hand. And alot of them (not all) think their $hit doesn't stink and they believe they'll make VP in 3 years

@r9 @s2 there are a lot of senior and lead developers in Fidelity like that

@r9 there’s a lot of people that come out of leap like that

@rk disagree, they go really deep into angular and springboot which most college students are not experienced with. i dont think I will ever leave fidelity, it's a great company

LEAP is a pretty worthless program. if you have any experience programming, it will teach you literally nothing useful

@ef so you were hired as a full stack engineer via LEAP and you could not code? Are you kidding me right now ? Wtf

@OP
Do leap then try to leave asap. Leap is a good program

Stay away from Citi at all accounts. Worse benefits, worse place to work, worse for long-term career. Look at what people say over their on this site. Terrible place to work, lousy offices (except HQ), no growth, just garbage.

runaway far, this place is great for dinosaurs, they will hunt from the minute you join... God save you if you join

Hi! First, CONGRATS on getting job offers! I did the Leap program back in 2022, and was laid off from Fidelity in 2024. I can give you some vision as someone who used to work there. I did the full stack route in Fidelity’s Leap. I was there back when coming back into the office was just beginning. So keep in mind some of this advice might be outdated. This advice can also be handy for your career wherever you go!

After the Leap program, I was in a situation where I was expected to do one type of work after the training program, but then the manager who put me on a specific team did not do the work I was told I was going to do. So, I had a lot of challenges. Frankly, one was myself. I was pretty bad at coding for quite some time. I couldn’t even code a for loop myself for a bit… which is embarrassing, I know. My last job at my contract ended, but I got the equivalent of Fidelity’s “EP” rating (in the upper echelon of employees in terms of performance) at that company, while on contract. So I guess I’m not a totally incompetent coder anymore lol.

There’s a LOT of people in this company. You’ll notice many people have been there for 20+ years. Not to play “devil’s advocate”, especially for a place that dumped me when push came to shove, but you asked a Reddit-esque forum that has a bunch of current and past employees filled with negativity for a ton of reasons. I still scroll here every few weeks because I’m vexed about being laid off. It’s pretty telling that what used to be seen as a company secret has spread so far that people outside of the company are coming here asking if it’s really that bad.

Fidelity can come with pros, so I’ll start with the pros. The 401k is an awesome part of this deal. Fidelity is a 401k company, after all. What direction do you want to go in your career? There was a huge push for cloud engineering, but I’m unsure how that’s going now. From what I’ve heard, the AI built inside the firm isn’t really the best, but it isn’t the worst either. It’s tough to be creative with building RAG systems, because as a fiduciary, Fidelity must follow financial regulations (FINRA, SEC, etc.) Back when I was there, using Codex/Claude for code was forbidden. I never used ChatGPT back then, so that’s probably why I su-ked at coding lol. Now it seems like there was a 180 turn to use AI generated code. But I could be wrong about that, anyone reading this can correct me.

After I was laid off, Fidelity’s name on my résumé still did me wonders. When finding jobs, people said “oh, you worked at Fidelity!”. When I got laid off, my strategy was to walk into the office every day until my last day to meet people and ask for help. That led me to my next job. If you are an outgoing person, you can maximize your networking at a company of 80k people. I’m not familiar with Citi Bank, but something to ask yourself is whether or not other offers’ reputations can do more for you.

Going into the cons, I’m starting off with what is seen as a con, but could be a pro. Now people say that this is an unstable company. True, layoffs happen all the time, but that’s anywhere you go, really. the I hate to assume, but when you say you’re a college grad, I assume you’re in your early 20s. I don’t exactly have the luxury myself to go somewhere and be free and just work all the time, but I’m not everybody. If you have that luxury as a young person, you can take on a lot of risk and still bounce back. I took a risky option by being offered a job at Fidelity. I got laid off, it was awful, but I needed to learn that lesson to grow as a person, and I’m glad it happened. If the worst case scenario happens when you get laid off, you should ideally learn how to survive while you’re young.

You’ll notice I have more cons, but don’t let that deter you from coming here. Sometimes management su-ks. Again, that’s everywhere. If Fidelity knows how to do one thing really well, it’s to do something that makes absolutely no sense. I told you my manager placed me in a situation I was not equipped for after my time in Leap. He had more work aligned with what I was supposed to do, but due to an issue with the business unit, he was on a project that needed a manager that knew more about a different type of tech. I was plopped there anyway because it looked good and the manager wasn’t sure where else to put me. That was a management mistake. Eventually, I got a new manager, which ended up becoming another new manager only a few months later, and then I got laid off.

This is the stuff specific to Fidelity. People are je-ks everywhere, but there’s something in the water at Fidelity where people working there are bigger je-ks. It doesn’t help that the whole force to go back into office is occurring, There absolutely are genuine people at Fidelity, but the ones that aren’t “feel” different from your usual je-k at work. Also, many people worship Fidelity like some God. I was sipping on the Koolaid for a bit until I got laid off. Many of these people are those in the 20+ year category I mentioned. They don’t have a life or personality outside of Fidelity. It’s kind of freaky. You’ll come across those people, just don’t drink the Koolaid. And the last thing I have: you need to be careful what you type on a Fidelity laptop. I don’t know if stuff changed, but I was swearing up and down on Fidelity’s Microsoft Teams conversations because I didn’t care. But if you type in the word “bet”, then you’re gonna be investigated because Fidelity forbids all employees from gambling. Feels like Fidelity is “always watching”, too.

Fidelity’s biggest strength in my opinion is their HR. Sure they have a cash cow that will continue to generate and manage billions of dollars. But they’ve been able to do so many things because their HR department is so elite all across the board. Idk how they’re doing with the RTO initiative, but they’ll figure something out.

The differences between now and back when I was there… Fidelity’s Leap program is shorter. They want to train up juniors more swiftly and throw them into the teams that make the most money. Your job “security” will seem more secure as people who can’t make it to the office every day drop from the company. But you’ll also be handed more work. Which, as someone learning early in their career, you want the work because you want to know how to do things. In your career, anywhere you go, the more you learn, the more you earn.

So if I were you, this is the two things I’d do, IF you take the role at Fidelity. First, if you haven’t already, learn React. Fidelity uses Angular, which is VERY tough. That’s why I got my butt kicked after Leap, because I had to teach myself how to use Angular all over again after Leap since I was told that I’d be doing only backend work. If you learn React, the skills will transfer to Angular much more easily than having no background experience at all. Also, anywhere you go in your career, you want to be responsible for work that is responsible for gaining a lot of revenue, or a lot of cost cutting. When you’re in the program, ask your manager how much your work directly impacts making money or making people spend less money.

Also keep in mind where the work you’ll be doing will be located. If it’s in TX or NC, there’s lots of push to get tech over there. Not so much in places like RI.

I don’t regret going to Fidelity one bit. I’d rather not go back, but if I ever need a job, Fidelity is not a bad last option at all. If you get laid off, you can always go back as long as you weren’t fired.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.

@an what? There is no profit sharing? Oh wait , that’s just for everyone but the New Mexico associates.

Gotta say no here as well… this ain’t the company it used to be.

5 years or more ago, sure. Now? Definitely not. The morale of the every day worker combined with the lack of direction/responsibility from senior "leadership" makes for a very tense and unfulfilling job. Mid-level leaders are taking the brunt of their direct reports lashing out, as SLT are throwing them under the bus by deflecting to them as insulation from the blowback of their hairbrained decisions. Most people with options are actively looking outside, so who remains will be the lazy, unmotivated, difficult to manage underperformers, and absolutely insufferable bootlickers.

The caliber of the talent here is so low that the new grads are better than senior/principal software engineers who only have fake overseas degrees.

DO NOT COME HERE.

About a quarter of last year's LEAP class have already left.

If you can ensure you don’t end up in workplace investing or on the phones

Which business line?

While flexibility and in office quietness matter, be sure to compare total comp packages.

Fidelity has a generous bonus plus 10% profit sharing on the sum of the base and bonus. Plus 7% 401k match.

Plus shares if you’re a top performer and some nice retirement health care and other things like that.

Honestly Fidelity excites me the most but both USAA and Citi have better flexibility (2 days WFH).

If I could do my life over I wouldn’t have wasted so much of it at Fidelity. Take the offer that gives you more flexibility to live your life.

@a2 In my personal experience, the team that I'm on does not have upwards mobility. We're incredibly capacity constrained, and despite growing business lines, our headcount has shrunk over the years. We're often in situations where we have to do 50+ hour weeks.

Leadership has a tendency to be stuck in its ways. Especially with RTO, leadership is babysitting us in ways that they did not do pre-Covid. Employees at Fidelity have valid frustrations with their voices not being heard, and Fidelity seems to consistently be okay with ignoring those voices.

Thanks Crabby Johnson. I'm honestly just wondering what's so bad about this place, beucase people are kind of vague on this page. I'm really concerned about upward mobility, office social life and amenities (I know, kind of d-mb), stuff like that

What offer excites you the most? Even if you choose wrong, you're not locked into one company forever. And for all of Fid's faults, it does look great on a resume. But the other two would as well.

Obviously this page is going to get a lot of Fidelity hate. I myself can't stand this place and am heading out in the coming weeks. But I did enjoy it during the honeymoon phase.