- Completely metrics based, impossible to hit 100% or perfect scores
- Bonuses based on metrics and taking a certain amount of overtime hours each week (overtime is not required, but it is automatically assigned to you multiple times per week, specifically before AND after your shift on Mondays and Fridays and some days in between. You have to get permission with a valid reason approved by your manager in advance to "opt out" of this overtime. You forfeit bonuses and performance reviews if you opt out of this overtime, which is fair if you decide you don't want to work overtime, but it is very frowned upon and you will receive poor treatment)
- Lots of computer/technology issues with Fidelity provided software and systems. If you are in outage for a certain amount of time (10 minutes or more, usually) then you will receive an occurance, even if it is a Fidelity issue.
- This position is policed as though you are a high school student. If you want constant micromanagement, someone watching over your shoulder (literally watching you take calls while you are speaking with a live customer on the phone and sharing your screen with them), having each call listened to and reviewed, and having to go through the ranks of being a new hire, freshman, sophomore, and so on, then take this job!
- Schedule adherence is one of the biggest metrics they track. You only have x amount of minutes per day (depending on how many hours long your shift is + overtime) to do anything other than take calls. This includes when you must finish up working on a prior call. For an industry where paying attention to detail is crucial, and making changes to someones retirement accounts can result in intense fines, penalties, and IRS scrutiny, you would think you can have at least a minute or two in between calls to finish up a transaction.
- You are expected to take between 40-70 calls a day (depending on how busy it is, sometimes more than this) with about 5-10 seconds in between.
- Lots of compliance training and Fidelity training classes/tests required, but are hard to complete given the fact that you usually only get two hours of OPA (off phone activity) time per month.
- IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR THIS POSITION WITH THE HOPE TO GET EXPERIENCE/"GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR" TO OBTAIN FINRA LICENSING, RECONSIDER. Fidelity has great learning material and great employee benefits like retirement match, financial planning, student loan reimbursement, etc., and during the first few weeks with the company, you can expect to attend meetings with HR and other departments within the company that claim you will be able to move to a different department after a certain period of time (typically one year with good performance) and explain you can move onto sponsorship for FINRA licensing such as the SIE exam, Series 7, Series 9, etc. However, the company avoids doing this at all costs and will keep you in the inbound call center position for several years before sponsorship. You will learn a lot about 401k plans, but you will not receive this sponsorship or training for at least 3-5 years. After speaking to other phone reps at Fidelity who worked there much longer than I did, it is clear that these claims for unlimited career growth are not all they are promising. Working for a smaller FINRA firm will allow more experience in other areas of retirement savings/investments rather than servicing 401k plans for callers who want to take a withdrawal. Plus, sponsorship is more of a guarantee in return for your time,
- If you are working 100% remote, especially in a state where there is not a Fidelity Hub, there is not any opportunity for growth within the company other than moving to another department of the call center. You will begin as a 401k phone rep, then have the option to begin training to learn other plan types such as pension plans, tax exempt plans, etc. If you are unable to work in person, there is no option for moving to a different department such as HR, personal investments, marketing, training, etc. You may have the ability to become a peer guide or manager of a group of phone reps after a few years and additional training, so if this is what you are aiming for, there is definitely an opportunity within the phone role. After a few months, you may learn the "online chat" feature to assist customers, but you can only work 2 hours per day in this position. Beyond this, there is literally no growth opportunity unless you are willing to relocate.
- If you work in person or in an area with a Fidelity hub location, you will likely work a hybrid schedule after training has ended, even if you were previously promised a fully remote role.
- Company often does large hiring campaigns in waves and then later will let employees go in large waves after they have achieved an acceptable/manageable call volume and low hold time for all in bound calls.
- Taking tens of abusive calls from rude and distraught callers is horrible and an unfortunate part of many customer service positions, specifically within call centers. You are not allowed to end the call or transfer the call to a manager (even if specifically requested by the caller) and you still must hit specific metrics and allow the after call review left by the customer to affect your pay and metrics scorecard. Certain metrics include the call must follow a specific script/flow, percentage of positive reviews/customer experience scores, keeping calls under 8 minutes, not putting the customer on hold for more than a certain amount of time, not connecting with the help desk or resource line for help every call, etc.
