Sunil at Fidelity

I used to work in the Technology sector. My role was operational, which I liked, but I’d always harboured ambitions of getting into Finance. As a Fidelity customer, I thought this would be a good place to start. After researching a few graduate programmes I liked the fact Fidelity only took on 15-20 graduates (unlike the high numbers recruited by many other financial companies). Plus their Operational Programme would give me experience in a number of functions. This was another bonus, as I wasn’t sure what type of role would suit me best.

My programme was structured over four six-month rotations, each of them in different parts of the business.

My first was in Customer Relations, where I worked with our Retail clients to investigate and resolve their queries. Customer Operations was next, which gave me a greater understanding of how customer’s queries were solved operationally. After that I moved into Investment Management Operations, where I worked on several projects with a team that supported our research professionals.

I’m now in the Institutional Business and work with a team of Relationship Managers who service some of our largest clients in the Middle East, South Africa and the Caribbean. In addition to resolving the client’s queries, a key element of the role performed by the Relationship Managers is to produce reports on such things as account valuations and fund performance. One of my key achievements in this team has been to make that time-consuming process more efficient by developing a series of Excel tools, freeing up the team to do what they do best - manage relationships.

In terms of highlights, I guess two projects stand out. The first was in Investment Management Operations where I worked closely with our Boston, Hong Kong and Tokyo offices to successfully roll out a new system that calculated the financial compensation given to Fidelity’s research providers via a voting process. My role involved managing the end to end business testing, developing procedure and training guides and demonstrating the final solution to some of our Fund Managers and Research Analysts.

The second project, in Customer Operations, was even more challenging. I was put in charge of a small operational team that was being disbanded. As well as ensuring the team’s day-to-day work was being done – and would be completed before the team was closed – I had to manage people’s concerns over their futures. Not an easy task. But it increased my confidence and provided excellent experience in dealing with tough situations of this nature.

I’m now coming to the end of my programme and feel that, having spent time in a variety of functions, the Investment side of the business is for me. The different experiences I’ve had and the responsibilities I’ve been given have proved invaluable in helping me focus my career ambitions. And I’m pretty sure that all the contacts I’ve made across the organisation will provide plenty of opportunities for me to achieve all I want to achieve.

A Day in my Life

0830 – Arrive at office, log into various systems and check emails

0900 – After responding to any urgent client queries, start producing the daily reports that are sent to some of my team’s largest clients in the Middle East and South Africa.

0930 – Look through all the dealing instructions received from the clients. For any instructions which have crucial information omitted, contact the client to either provide this information over the phone or request that they fax through a revised instruction. For all deals in good order, send them to our dealing team to execute.

1000 – My turn to do the tea round!

1015 – Deal with any ad hoc client queries but also continue working on one of several projects I’ve got on the go. This morning I’m putting the finishing touches to a new Excel tool I have created for the team which automates and greatly reduces the time to create a significant monthly report we have to send to one of our Middle Eastern clients.

1230 – Lunch – I generally meet up with a few friends to go to the staff restaurant. The food here is excellent and very good value for money!

1330 – Check through emails and respond to any queries

1400 – Dial into a conference call with our New Accounts team in India. We’re working with them to reallocate some of the clients that are currently assigned to our team. (This is a much larger and more complex project than it sounds!)

1500 – Following the meeting, do a bit of analysis on some client data (which I will need to send to the manager of the New Accounts team).

1600 – One to one with my programme manager. I have one every 2 weeks to discuss the projects I’m working on and how they’re progressing. This meeting also provides a good opportunity to seek advice for any particular challenges I’m experiencing.

1700 – Back to my desk to check email and tie up any final loose ends.

1715 – Time to go. Despite being one of the most prominent companies in financial services, there is a good work life balance at Fidelity. Since I haven’t been for a few days, I think I’ll be heading to the gym this evening.