Fidelity could become a good place to work again. How much time will it take?
Pros
If you are motivated you can gain alot of valuable experience and know how. But you have to be motivated on your own. Fidelity as an organization, despite its claims, will not assist you nor look out for your career. If you are cognizant enough to see certain situations as opportunities, you can at least gain the experience. In the past sr. management has funded the important business initiatives. Still not clear on how this will shake out. The technology investment has always been strong. The implementation has been less that optimal at times. Until the recent RIF, you could usually count on having the best and brightest people to work with. In the last few years, high performers seem to be rewarded significantly higher than average performers from a compensation perspective. For many year has not been the case.
Cons
Across the entire organization, there are alot people who are in the wrong positions. This applies to IT, general management , Senior management , etc. Overall, management ability is poor. Despite the bevy of management training required, it would seem that some people are just not cut out to be management. This poor management performance also prevents line management from removing poor performers. When its clear that a person is mismatch for the position he/she holds, the line manager does not have the skill/ability to make the change. This goes on for years on end. In the IT world, the various organizations have conflicting agendas and business plans. Very poor coordination if any across the various IT and business organizations. This causes high costs, high risk and significant inefficiencies. It used to be that the average Fidelity associate was very passionate about his/her job. Not so sure now. Its clear that the new management is shoring up cost containment and streamlining and maybe cleaning out the under performers. That's just good business, if that is in fact what's happening. I'm afraid that days of working with truly dedicated and passionate people are over.