Fisher Investments reviews

For integrity's sake, I will use my own personal story to outline some of the larger issues with the company. I applied to Fisher Investments four times for the Account Executive role, waiting six months in between each time, per company policy. During this time I sold insurance to get experience in the financial services industry. I have a BA in economics and although I only had a C+ Average GPA, I am an intelligent and hard working person. I also had several years of solid business and sales experience during college to bridge that gap. After each time I applied I did not get any feedback on the interview process - also per company policy. I would make it past the phone screen and into the in-person interviews with the AE team leaders (people who often had less management and sales experience than me at the time, again due to my previous experience). It wasn't until the fourth and final time I was interviewed that I actually made it in front of the AE hiring manager. Shortly after finally being hired, it became painfully clear that I was overqualified for the entry level sales role. It also became clear to me that the company had grown too fast, and their HR department had made mistakes with my candidacy. This posed a problem for the AE hiring manager, who had overlooked me as a good potential hire. I was also unsatisfied with my position after a short time, realizing just how little the position matched my skill level and experience. The AE hiring manager had also talked me into a salary that did not match either of those categories. I accepted, only because I'd had so much trouble getting hired in the first place. I quickly demonstrated my aptitude, gaining attention from upper management. This put even more pressure on the AE hiring manager. But instead of offering me a better position, or granting my request for a higher salary, or providing me with greater resources to close more lucrative sales, I was met with platitudes, empty gestures, and department-wide demonstrations intended to highlight my insignificance. During one floor-wide monday morning meeting, the statistics on the number of department interviews, hires, and transfers were posted on a large whiteboard while the AE hiring manager stood in the back of the room and stared intimidatingly toward me, as if to make the point that I was just another pawn, unworthy of such consideration by his superiors. I was then caught between fulfilling my obligation to the original position I was assigned, or attempting to side step the AE hiring manager's authority to gain a better position. Normally this would have been an easy choice, but I was never directly offered anything from upper management. Keep in mind, this is a company that promotes itself as one where people can move laterally with ease. The COO himself did tell me a story in a small group setting about how he had climbed the ranks by taking his bosses job. Another upper level manager told a similar story to a larger group about his path within the company, from sales to research to upper management, right before saying that loyalty and intelligence was the best way to climb the ranks. (This message was of course antithetical to the "metrics-based" merit system propagated by the AE hiring manager to low level employees.) "Loyalty to who?" I wondered. My aim was indeed to eventually move into research. Did the upper level manager know this when he made his speech? The later COO summoned me up to his office on the condition that I felt the AE hiring manager was being unethical in his dealings with me. He was, but I did not want the AE hiring manager's job, and did not go. When I decided to stick it out in the position I had worked so hard to obtain instead of applying for other positions in the company, I was told to take a vacation by a colleague. I left for Hawaii the next day. When I got back, I was fired for not "obtaining the proper approval before leaving." I had accumulated enough PTO to cover my vacation, but apparently did not give enough warning to my lower level team leader and floor manager, despite looking them both in the eye and telling them I was going. All of this happened in a span of four short winter months, and in the weeks leading up to my "un-excused absence," I'd come down with a terrible case of bronchitis, made worse by the constant talking required of Account Executives (200+ phone calls a day). The week before I was fired, I was prescribed a hefty dose of a prescription steroid, which really messed up my sleep cycles. This combined with all the drama and stress from unwanted attention culminated in a lapse in my judgment, and I can see how my lower level superiors felt miffed from me not asking them, but telling them I was going on a vacation. Up to this point, I believe they had been pushing for my success. Regardless, the person who fired me was the AE hiring manager himself. I'm not even sure the COO or upper level manager knew prior to it happening. In fact I am fairly certain the upper level manager told my colleague to tell me to take a vacation. I thought it was intended to give me some time to heal my lungs and think over what position I would be happy with in the short and long term. I guess I was wrong. Now, to outline the issues: 1) Big Brother. Everything you say and do can and will be used against you. There are dummy cameras, designed to distract you from the real ones. Someone is listening to every word you say to prospective clientele. If you say the wrong thing, or say something with the wrong tone, you will hear about it. In fact, I am fairly certain I was followed on numerous occasions outside of the office. I may sound paranoid, but its true. 2) Use of indirect communication. Outside salesmen will pose as prospective clients, just to see how well good you are at selling stuff. When I say I "demonstrated my aptitude," what I really mean is that I knew who was real and who was fake. Ken fisher did it to me himself and I made it clear that I knew something was up. However, I did so indirectly, also showing that I knew how to play the game. That's what got upper management's attention. This helps the company avoid liability issues - Like when an employee is indirectly told to take a vacation, management can then fire that employee for not "following proper protocol." Said employee then has no way to prove that he did indeed have proper approval, and cannot claim wrongful termination. 3) The "Metrics Based" merit system is a load of bull. Just like with any sales role, there are better territories than others. There are also better outside salesmen that others. SENIOR AE's (i.e. the loyal and tenured) get special relationships with outside salesmen who are capable of closing in affluent areas. Lower level AE's are nothing more than sorting machines, filtering higher quality leads out of the trash and sending them upstream. 4) Office Poltics. Ken Fisher often writes about his loathing of "Poli-tics." However, his own company is rife with a cacophony of brown nosing, backstabbing, and downright hostile people working in management. I was literally yelled at once by the AE hiring manager for eating burritos. I am not kidding. Many of the people I met there were bright, hard working people, who genuinely wanted to help others. I was one of those people, but I was also too smart for my own good. Instead of putting me in a position where I could maximize my talents, I was pushed out because I posed a threat to the old guard. The irony is thick on this point. 5) Performance. The actual performance of their portfolio has been lackluster in recent years. Shortly after I was let go, Ken Fisher resigned as the CEO, although he still remains the chairman of the Investment Policy Committee. Hopefully this has allowed him to focus more on the portfolio's performance. They also recently opened a new home Office in Texas.