Customer Service Representative | Westlake, TX | May 21, 2014
401K Specialist, Customer Support
This was a specialized Call Center position specifically to assist customers calling in who were requesting Loans , Withdrawals, exchanges of funds,rebalancing, as well as IRA Rollovers within their 401K accounts.
In addition, I assisted customers with Education regarding the navigation of the Net Benefits site which housed their 401K accounts and how they could make their own changes as needed.
The training was intense and Voluminous, 8 weeks Classroom , notes , constant testing and passing required to advance to next piece of curriculum. Intense and Stressful, over the top pressure to achieve and perform that was not necessary to get the results needed.
After 8 weeks of Fidelity In house Training , I received a Defined Benefits certificate and began work on the phone.
As with Citi the style of Management was less so, but all the same - punitive and not respectful of the employee, with no latitude for knowledge or judgment, strictly task oriented and metrics were addressed daily.
This left me with an unprofessional view of Fidelity as a company . I would only assume that the Management would have been of a higher level and Quality . It was insultive and employees were treated like and spoken to like children and not adults , as with Citi.
Right after I began the full time work on the phones in Oct 2007, we were informed that we needed to complete our Series 6 Licensing Coursework in order to take the exam and continue to be in compliance for t
Prosmuch knowledge gained, opportunity for License and Study
Conslunch break was 1/2 hr, too much pressure for metrics not necessary for results
Customer Service talking to client via chat email and mainly phones
Inbound service calls where expediency and customer satisfaction are your metrics to meet. This role is very stressful and difficult because of the lack of time not inbound on the phone calls which results in 80-100 calls per day which is absolutely exhausting and so strenuous and unpleasant the entire workday without relief other than running to grab food or rushing to use the restroom finally on breaks.
The managers directly that I had were amazing and so willing to help in anyway you needed but the upper management was less personable or even in the picture at all for the front line employees. Besides the occasional email saying thanks for working so hard for our customers while we worked OT constantly, had less off phone time, and no ability to take sick or Paid time due to volumes they would send these emails to keep people a guess kind of happy.
The culture was great in the beginning but became more and more negative, single minded, not company or goal oriented, bitter, and unpleasant in the end because of changes and role removals resulting in demotions and no other options for employees who were then forced to work a role they not only did not apply for but never would have wanted to have a career path towards. This role was generally the entry level phone role that those of us more tenured had worked so hard to be promoted out of and never go back to because that is what you did to get into the company is put in your dues on the phones. So going back to this
Prosbenefits, healthy lunches, onsite gym, beautiful campus, great colleagues and security
Consno time to break or take a moment to breath, very little to no growth, current changes affect job stability and
High energy fast paced work environment that promotes awards and recognition of employees with quality processes and high expectations.
A typical day of a CDS associate requires on average 18,000 steps per day. We would start our day by receiving and reconciling on average 3,000 envelopes and 180 packages from different couriers like UPS, FedEx, and DHL. We did this with RF Scanning equipment linked with our shipping and receiving program SendSuite. The envelopes were sorted then scanned to their designated groups, and delivered close by to labeled racks to be processed accordingly. The packages were received, reconciled, and routed, using the same RF Scanning equipment and SentSuite program before being loaded onto carts put into vans, and delivered in bulk to designated administrators. Management appointed each associate designated building rotations using a weekly schedule coupled with a consistent daily pick up and drop off time of 11AM, 2PM, and 4PM. Management would also make sure one associate stayed back in the central location to answer phones, do research, and meter mail that amounted on average to 5,000 pieces per day. Packages and Mail picked up from each building were scanned upon pickup, sorted into designated bins marked by courier, reconciled again for tracking purposes at the central location then sorted by courier placed on skids to meet the 5PM daily shipment requirement.
During my career at Fidelity I learned how to conduct myself in a corporate environment. I also learned how to use RF Scanning equipment, and computer programs linked to it. I learned how to constructively crit
Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Fidelity Investments is meh. Don’t write hm ab it,
Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Fidelity Investments were ok.Bonus was nice
Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Fidelity Investments, I think once u turn 40...keep your eyes and options open.a
Management
In general, managers at Fidelity Investments talk the talk, but don’t walk the talk. Millennial obsessed at the expense of their best employees who usually get kicked out via a “voluntary buyout” or layoff so they can hire younger and cheaper. what else is new. You’re a #.
Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Fidelity Investments was fantastic until we got a new boss who was more interested in not managing ppl, and more into kissing his boss’s a** to further his career. Never saw him. Not the most warm and secure environment.
It was a culture of fear and waiting for the other shoe to drop constantly...esp if you’re over 40. That place felt like a modern day “Logan’s Run.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film))
Overall
My experience working at Fidelity Investments started out terrifically, had a wonderful boss; but he left 6 mos before our demise, and the new ladder-climbing gnome of a boss comes in and that was that. We knew our group was toast when this new guy started hiring “contractors” who did exactly what we did....only to hire them later. Basically my time w Fido ended shortly thereafter by being laid off with 39 other colleag
Here you will be a cog in a machine. Unrealistic expectations.
Now, at the end of 2020, they were clearly looking to get people hired for the upcoming tax season, as well as continuing to handle all the fallout from pandemic related exceptions and withdrawals from 401 K accounts. You're given a 3 month period in which to train, and the training modules come at you fast and furious. You're given a good peer group and virtual classroom environment where you'll become allies in adversity. And that's really where the good stuff stops.
I've worked in call centers of varying degrees since 1997. I've done collections, tech support, appointment setting, fundraising... if there's a phone position, I've likely done it. And for incoming calls, I've never come across a company that gives you NO time between calls. Fidelity was the first. The nature of the beast is that you will have difficult calls. Moreover, given the nature of the 401k based customer service, there will be plenty of notation to be done. The industry has shifted to working call center staff more mercilessly in recent years. And here one is expected to be notating every last extremely important detail in their specialized database software, all the while searching up important and relevant data in at least 30 individual tools. Some dating back to the 1980's in an ASCII interface. You're expected to hit the ground running with all of this as they alternate your schedule between learning modules and live incoming calls and get it right the first time, or there could be di
ProsVery complete training on financial products.
ConsOvertime, No time between calls, unrealistic expectations.
My manager's favorite phrase was "do whats best for the company". Meaning he had a skeleton crew running a massive data center with 2 people on shift at night when all the work was done in a 24/7 environment with 7 or 8 people on shift during the day. Why was it 24/7? because according to him if he changed the schedule from that he would have to fire people. I personally think that that was his excuse for forcing people to work weekends and holidays because I have worked at other data centers that did mon-fri and did on call for any serious issues between midnight and 7am and it worked out great. We also had 6 guys working together on the same shift mon-fri so the work was easier and we got more done. Cant convince them to change their way of thinking. I developed several different automation processes that were largely ignored and the guy who sat on his phone all day watching youtube got promoted 3 times while I never got even a pay raise in the 4 years I was there. The guy they promoted was hired right out of college and it was his first job... this wasnt even my first data center job out of college. So the manager picks and chooses who hes going to promote based on factors other than quality of work (read: he promotes his buddies not the people actually doing the work). He also hires people out of school "so we can mold them" and then complains about them not knowing how to do the work a few months later. He recently hired the first woman to the team and the pro
Prosdecent pay, good benefits
Conspoor management, slow to no advancement opportunities, cliques, horrible work hours for most
Fidelity as a whole is a good company. Privately held so layoffs are rare. Their call center site is STUNNING, they have a good 401k match, good insurance, and several reimbursement programs for things like tuition, gym memberships, etc. The salary is on the low side for phone reps with the intention that you shoot for the quarterly bonus pool instead. However there is a clear line in job satisfaction depending on if you are on the phones or not; and if you are on the phones, depends on if you have a license or not. The licensed people vary in how they will speak to you if you're "just a service rep", some are nice, but a lot of them will talk to you like you're unintelligent or not worthy of their time. My experience was going in to Fidelity and being told there is a lot of room for advancement and chances to move beyond the initial phone role where most people start. After some time at the job, I will say that once you're on the phone, they want to KEEP you on the phone. The "room for advancement" for a phone rep is moving either to a licensed advice-type role on the phone, or another branch of phone service. Every so often there's a rare unicorn associate who gets a "back office" job, and they are immediately inundated with "how'd you get it?!" desperation questions from everyone they know. If you're OK in a call center, inbound role long-term, you should be fine! The metrics are strict on handle time for calls and any time you spend in a "not ready" state is grounds for c
ConsShort breaks, micromanagement, once on the phone always on the phone, difficult metrics, very few roles to move to from phones and they are VERY few and far between, promotions are all about brown-nosing and who you know.
Really good company, must be right fit for you to be happy
Rundown: M-F. Work one late shift per week until 9 EST. You work 8.5 hours unless they make you do mandatory OT then it could be more. As a WPC you will take calls thats come in for 401k and you are responsible for servicing their need at some point but before doing so, the main goal is to open them up into a planning conversation. As with any sales role they have a very specific sales process to do this and they are BIG on you following it. The process is meant to help you go through planning tools to "help" the participant move forward with actions to better their retirement picture. Really, the goal behind it is to uncover outside assets and if the participant is eligible, then you can set a branch referral. There are times of course you can provide some guidance and actually help a participant in a big way. I was big on this so my calls were longer than they would hope for, so as a result my numbers were just about slightly above average. The top performers rush through calls and don't even provide legit advice and just get the planning clicks they need. Fidelity definitely values numbers over quality too much in my opinion.
The path has a great chance for you to move up and progress quickly. They are hiring like crazy. So the growth potential is there for sure. Their are 3 levels to WPC and big raises in between each one (raises mainly come from commission potential.) You have to be confident you can handle the tougher side of the environment though of sitting on your bu
ProsGreat benefits, learn important skills, help people with finances, growth potential
ConsCare more about numbers than quality, strapped to phone, deal with too many technical issues, have to kiss butt to advance
Great company with strong core values and family first mentality.
The customer is always first - Our customers have to be able to trust us with complete faith to manage and help secure their financial futures. Our business is based on developing long-term relationships built on this trust. The way to build those relationships is by doing the right thing for our customers every single time. This is not only the right thing to do ethics-wise; it's the right thing to do business-wise. Our founding principle six decades ago, it rings as true today.
Respect for employees and respect for each other - We must always be a company of good, decent people who treat each other as they would want to be treated. Just as we are dedicated to building long-term relationships with our customers, we are a company built on relationships with each other - relationships within groups, across departments and business units, and increasingly across time zones, geographies, and cultures. Respecting these relationships is at the very core of how we must behave as people and as an organization.
Integrity and honesty above all - Acting with integrity and honesty goes to the very essence of everything we do for our customers, and also to our respect for each other. Cutting a corner; not adhering strictly to the laws, regulations and ethics that govern our company; or not giving your best effort, tarnishes the company and, therefore, each of us. At the end of the day, integrity and honesty are what our company's name means, and that should mean everything to us.
A hu
Prosculture
2.0
Benefits Representative | Merrimack, NH | Mar 10, 2021
Call Center is all about micromanagement
If you work in the call center, you start out with a training period which is actually pretty fun. But then you're put on the phones and it's not so fun anymore. Every single minute of your day is scheduled - even your bathroom breaks. If you go to the bathroom outside of a scheduled break, you're out of "adherence." You're part of a team where bonuses depend on everyone's combined metrics, so literally going to the bathroom off schedule can contribute to a lower bonus for your co-workers. You might also get negative reviews from callers when you did nothing wrong and that will count against you as well.
Some customers can be nice but the job itself was pretty disorganized. For retirement plans, every company had multiple documents for their benefits. You could easily read the wrong information to the customer if you're not careful. You had to look up things on multiple systems sometimes. Some companies had pretty complex rules, or rules that changed multiple times over the years, so you are constantly put on the spot with questions and have to put people on hold and frantically read these elaborate documents to get information. Random phone calls can be pulled and you'll be brought in for coaching and they nit-pick over everything that's said.
At the time I was hired, the call center paid very well for the area, which attracted new hires. It's an easy way to get a job that pays decent money. The company offered GREAT benefits too. And you could relax and socialize between
ProsLots of benefits, great starting pay
ConsBeing micromanaged, every minute is scheduled
Questions And Answers about Fidelity Investments
Why did you leave your job at Fidelity Investments?
Asked Mar 23, 2017
I was hard-working and conscientious. This was threatening to some of the slackers in management. When I noticed that both printers on my floor were down and we had no notebooks or pens in cabinets, I reported it to the supply-ordering woman on the floor where I went to make copies of our daily class. She was shopping for handbags on her computer at the time and took offense. She offered to show me online how to report printers down. I replied that myself and 50 (yes!) others in my floor were being paid to study for our FINRA licensing exams so I didn’t think I was the correct one to be reporting it. She became my enemy bc I was a threat. TO MYSELF, I noted that she cd get poor quality cookies to all dining areas on Natl Sugar Cookie Day; ditto w Natl Vanilla Ice Cream Day yet not keep supplies needed daily! I pointed out that HER floor had nice quality and cheap Bic stick pens while my floor only had the cheapest pens). She ‘reported me to my Manager who rudely yanked me out of class to scold me for 45 minutes that I had called the printer repair guy fat and bald! Apparently supply slacker had lied about what I said bc I hv never laid eyes on this guy and to this day don’t know who he is! As we exited the meeting, my Manager stepped into hall w/in earshot of HER Manager and loudly scolded me for being unprofessional by calling so and so fat and bald! I was so shocked bc I had just told her that was impossible for me to say. I got another like scolding fr my Manager loudly pulling me out of study group like a truant child for a 15-min mtg. Why? bc I didn’t text report my emergency 8am chiropractor visit to her before I went into office. I reported it to her when I arrived at 9am (1-hr late) telling her I wd work one hour late (I worked 2.5 after closing). She made me take PTO for 1-hr. When I failed Series 7 by 1point (herniated disk in lumber/pain meds slowed me until I cd get steroid injection) I was laid off for 6 months and invited to reapply/retake test. I already have two other needed FINRA licenses. I reapplied and was told: “You qualify to return (top score on EVERY customer review for last 2 months I was on phones), but SENIOR MANAGEMENT says you don’t fit into the culture here!! I got along w all of my work colleagues but was not as goof off and playful as the mostly younger slackers!
Answered Dec 3, 2019
Micro managed in a very political environment.
Answered Dec 29, 2018
What is the interview process like at Fidelity Investments?
Asked Feb 11, 2016
When I got called for the job, the person who called me over the phone for interview told me I will have to quit school for a semester in order to be successful in the training. I went a head and quit classes, believe me it was the hardest decision I ever made since I have only got the chance to start back the semester before but I believed the job was a great opportunity. Initially she told me to make up my mind and give her a call back and I tried calling many time with no response. I reached out to the first person who contacted me about the job and that's how she called me back. Then she went on to send me a test and once I did the test she called me back to tell me I didn't pass the test so I wont get the job. She really spoiled my entire semester and Ihave been depressed since then because why tell someone to quit school if there was so many processes to determine if I would get the job. I didn't even made it to training.
Answered Mar 16, 2019
Horrible, wasted my time- and didnt respond to Thank you's- you never know where your paths may cross again!
Answered Aug 2, 2018
What is the dress code at the call centers and investment centers?
Asked Jul 1, 2016
As a Corporate payroll employee only dress I know is anty thing less than a suit and more the Friday's causal wear..
Answered Jun 15, 2018
Call centers - NO dress code!
Answered Mar 31, 2018
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Fidelity Investments a better place to work?
Asked Jun 18, 2018
More help for phone associates. Managers and Team Leads do everything they can to avoid taking a call aka escalation from a customer leaving you on the call listing to the customer vent while they stall in hopes the customer will just hang up. Managers have no control over your PTO, breaks, lunches. Wish lunches were paid and longer. It’s a stressful job and long breaks and lunch would be helpful along with flexibility to take breaks and lunch when you want and need it and not when you’re told to take it. Managers do not support you if you get an error based on a complicated plan.
Answered Nov 5, 2020
Change these aggressive managers, who have team leaders doing the firing.
Answered Oct 14, 2020
Does this company perform drug tests?
Asked Jun 16, 2017
Yes, and randomly after hire based on your position/job role.
Answered Nov 11, 2017
Yes, also background investigations including official fingerprinting. This seems to be an industry standard
