Internships at Fidelity Investments

Farrah Welcome to side of the desk podcast, hosted by Fidelity Jobs and the Fidelity's Women's Leadership Group. We're here today to have deep discussions on the authentic experience of being a working professional in today's ever changing workforce. Fernando Yeah. Of course. Let's do this. Hey, everyone. My name is Fernando Ruffino. I'm a rising senior at Connecticut College, and I'm majoring in sociology. I'm currently an investor center intern at a branch located in Deer Park, Illinois. So this role is really, like client facing. I get to work alongside, you know, the financial representatives where I greet clients who are logging in for appointments or, you know, I support the clients who need like support with like, minor service related needs. Fernando Yeah. Of course. You know, there's a lot of awesome opportunities that, you know, Fidelity offers not only for associates, but, you know, even to like us interns specifically those in the investor center branches. You know, we're offered opportunities to grow, with this, there exist this program called the Fidelity Assist Scholars Program. You know, this is where fidelity will pay for your I study materials and even in attempt to the eye exam. Fernando So through such programs like Fidelity truly shows that they value upskilling. You know, associates internally, especially even these interns, you know, along with this, as an associate, you're also encouraged to continue learning. So I know a lot of, of my peers and like, teammates, they're like pursuing their CFP, which is like certified financial planner. They also get the opportunity to tend to, you know, get the series. Fernando 666, the series seven, all these exams that, you know, prep them to become either, you know, a financial consultant, a planning consultant, you know, whatever they truly desired because, Fernando Fidelity really offers all these opportunities for growth. Fernando I love that because as, like, similar to Charlotte, you know, I'm coming from sociology, so I have no kind of background in finance. Fernando And I haven't even taken like an economics finance course. So with the SA scholars program, and I've been able to learn like the essentials that are needed, you know, for securities, anything related to investing. And so it's been an awesome opportunity to, to get that from Fidelity. Charlotte Yeah. I would love to talk about this, though. Something that I've really enjoyed about the internship here at Fidelity is how many career center events that they provide. And as an intern, you're completely welcome and invited to participate in these events. So some of the events that I've gone to, it's just an overall career overview of how to navigate the career center, which is obviously good for interns because it's their first time kind of seeing that space. Charlotte And then I've also attended an event called Identifying Your Transferable Skills, which is good for just interviewing for different jobs. When you're navigating the post-grad life and things like that. And I've also attended perfecting your elevator pitch, which has been really helpful, and again, preparing for interviews. And then in terms of my project itself that I've worked on for my team this summer, I've really enjoyed just learning so much. Charlotte I feel like I literally completely learned everything that I'm doing on the job, which has been really encouraging and made me, has made me feel much better. Being able to enter the real world after graduation and knowing that I'm capable of doing this type of work. Fernando That's awesome. Shall I? Similar to you I kind of agree with, like, the the trainings or, like, other career kind of prep, but, I know for Fidelity, like the term program, we get, like, budgeting 101 credit 101, investing 101. So attending those sessions, you know, like really helped me, you know, learn more about, you know, Fernando The 50, 30, 20 rule. Fernando So there's a lot of really cool things that, you know, Fidelity offers further insurance as well. that I had the pleasure to attend. But along with this, I've also like one of the main things I've learned is how to work with a team. So, during my time here, I had, the opportunity to work with four other interns that are at, like, separate branches. Fernando So we kind of, we worked together to, like, plan a volunteering event where we brought together, like, seven branches in, like, our market level area. And we we got them to volunteer, you know, via Fidelity Care. So, you know, we got a cool little swagger, cool shirt. that said, Fidelity Cares and Fidelity Investments in the front. Fernando And then it was a fun time, you know, it was getting to bond with, associates and, you know, team members from other branches, you know, like, I'm located in Deer Park and I got to hang out with, like, these cool people from Highland Park. So it was a it's a really fun experience to not only work with the, the interns, but also get to meet their teams and see how it's going in their branches as well. Fernando Likewise, I feel like, just Fidelity associates in general are so kind with their time that they're willing to provide so much time to, you know, ask them questions. And, like, I haven't there hasn't been a point here where I feel, like, scared to ask something or be like or, I don't know, it's been a really good, like experience with all the employees. Fernando I can take that one. just because I have this conversation all the time, you know, whether it be with my parents, whether it be with, a scholarship I'm applying to. And I got to write an essay. It's always like going into finance. Feels like it's out of left field, or it's like, what? What are you doing? Fernando You're a sociology major. What? how did you end up in finance? And I often don't know the answer myself, you know? but, like, it's like, in terms of, like, why I pick Fidelity. So while I was in their portal, there's this video that came up, you know, like, Fidelity careers. And it was the topic was, what did you study in college? Fernando And the, the video proves that you didn't need a financial degree to work at Fidelity at all, like there was people who didn't go to college. There's people with communication majors. You know, there's people with, all these different like majors that weren't finance. And I was like, well, that's, that's me. I can I can enter this company too. Fernando Like they kind of gave me that motivation, pursue a career that was outside of what I had studied. and so now, like, when it comes to, like, applying for jobs, it's like, I want an environment where we can learn. And similar to what I was saying earlier, like with the C, it's pretty much giving me all the study material I need. Fernando So like there really like Fidelity is kind of like breeding us from the very beginning, you know, giving us the education we need. And so, in terms of like, where would I, where I would apply, I would apply to Fidelity, you know, like, I don't necessarily need to have this financial background. You know, it would be kind of beneficial to maybe take, before I end up leaving since I'm a rising senior, maybe take some economics courses. Fernando Finance courses, you know, to kind of help boost my education, maybe when I come back, but, yeah, overall, it just, you know, Fidelity is really you don't need a finance degree. Fernando Yeah. I was going to echo the same thing. You know, they they don't. You. They encourage you. Like, if I wanted to go from our branch to regional office, which kind of seems like my goal at one point. they encourage and, you know, I've, I've talked to multiple people, you know, who have had these like, career pivots and all within Fidelity. Fernando So, you know, the opportunities are almost like endless. You know, you can you can pursue that career in marketing or you can pursue that career in diversity and inclusion. And, you know, that might be something I do, you know, with my major. But being specifically where I'm at right now, it's like, oh, I will learn and I'll this is my way in. Fernando And, you know, if one day my career requires me to pivot or I'm like, hey, maybe I need a career change. I know that Fidelity has those opportunities. So it's like, come on now. Who wouldn't want who wouldn't want to come to Fidelity? Fernando so my best advice would be never stop learning. Fernando there's some people weren't taking this. I mean, because it's just like, oh, you know, like, I don't have to, but if Fidelity is offering it for free Fernando And these exams help people to become advisors. Fernando and you get to get a license, it's like, why not go for it? You know, Fernando And. Fernando On my end. At least when I was looking at Fidelity, one of the main things I did was, you know, went through their website and, you know, we felt I saw, like, the awards, you know, Glassdoor type company for, like, employees or like, top company in diversity. So I was really looking for a company that aligned with, like, my goals and, you know, kind of what I value. Fernando And so being able to see that Fidelity being really like, being an amazing company, I was like, okay, let me take a further look. And this was similar with other companies I was looking at, you know, I wanted to see their track record. You know, I wanted to see, you know, how do you treat your employees? so, you know, whether that was through, like doing research on Glassdoor or other like, platforms that are similar, just getting to hear the experience from those employees, you know, maybe take a look at them, you know, especially with the interim ones. Fernando You know, there was times I know Fidelity has like a Reddit page, you know, like and they actually it's an active page where like people from like Fidelity Internal are in there, you know, moderating it. Like you can ask questions like, oh, how was an intern opportunity or like how do, how did you enjoy, your internship if somebody intern, you know, I took a look at all those Reddit post and I was like, oh, okay. Fernando So, oh, you get to do that. Or so things like that. You know, just making sure you do your research. that's how I got to Fidelity. Farrah Thank you for listening to the side of the desk episode. And thank you to our recording studio and editors who made our episode possible. For more information about working at Fidelity, check out FidelityCareers.com.