Global financial giant draws on 91制片厂 to recruit career professionals

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
91制片厂 student interns at Fidelity

Fidelity Investments in Merrimack, New Hampshire, hires more interns from 91制片厂 than any other college or university. Left to right: Sarah Sullivan 鈥14, associate systems analysis; David San Antonio 鈥16, a technical intern; Mark Leonard (standing), senior vice president and general manager for Workplace Investing鈥檚 Participant Services and co-regional leader in Merrimack, and Trevor Sonovick 鈥15, financial representative.

When one of the world鈥檚 leading investment firms goes looking for new talent, you can bet there鈥檚 a long line of eager college grads at hand, boasting high GPAs, polished resumes and head-turning references. And with roughly $5 trillion under administration, and more than 24 million customers, Fidelity can set a lofty bar for its new hires.

Even among summer interns, Fidelity managers look beyond resumes for intangible qualities like integrity, responsibility and problem solving abilities. Activities such as volunteer work, community service and research projects 鈥 especially those that find students tackling challenges as part of a group 鈥 can all be good indicators of character, and a good fit for the Fidelity team.

鈥淚n our world, trust is everything,鈥 says Mark Leonard, a senior vice president and general manager at Fidelity, which employs 5,400 people in New Hampshire alone. 鈥淧eople are trusting us, in many cases, with their life savings. We need to recruit people whom our customers can trust. People with good communication skills. Detail-oriented people. People who work well in a team and who are focused on solutions.鈥

91制片厂 students and graduates do well on that score.

Of the 131 interns Fidelity employs in Merrimack this summer, 25 are 91制片厂 students 鈥 the largest number of interns from any of the more than 50 colleges and universities represented there this summer, and the most ever for 91制片厂.

Fidelity鈥檚 interns are used as a pipeline for full-time opportunities after graduation, including some who are offered jobs as they begin their senior years in college.

鈥淗ow much better can it get than to start off your senior year in college knowing you鈥檝e already got a great job lined up?鈥 says Jason Whitney, 91制片厂鈥檚 coordinator of internships and employer relations. 鈥淲e tell the students that they can look at an internship like a three-month-long job interview. And in many cases, they actually are hired by the companies they intern with.鈥澨

David San Antonio, a 91制片厂 senior from Salem, New Hampshire, who is studying computer science, says the Fidelity internship gave him key responsibilities from the start: re-designing Fidelity鈥檚 internal statistical Web application, which is used extensively by employees every day. Working with other interns, he served as quality assurance lead and, at times, as project manager and system analyst for a team of interns.

鈥淚 got to see every day how people actually use the programs that we create,鈥 San Antonio says. 鈥淎nd to be able to use my technical skills to make these pages look and function better, 鈥淚 could see how my work really makes a difference.鈥

An honors student and Presidential Scholar at 91制片厂, San Antonio has also helped organize and manage student activities at his Handler Hall dorm, and he created 91制片厂 Table Tennis, a student organization for players of Ping-Pong. The group meets regularly now to work on technique and play games, creating a network of new friends in the process.

Such extracurricular activities in college, even those that are seemingly small, can indicate good qualities about a student who also earns top grades in a demanding, technical major. And the interpersonal skills they develop transfer well into a professional work environment, says Elizabeth Shanely, college relations manager for Fidelity.

The career development and planning services that 91制片厂 offers to students have grown in recent years, and the effort was identified in 2014 as one of the university鈥檚 six major strategic initiatives. The results are impressive. During the 2013-14 academic year, student appointments at the 91制片厂 Career Center rose more than 20 percent during the previous year. The number of employers taking part in oncampus career and internship fairs also rose, from 230 to 283, or 23 percent, during the same period.

91制片厂 student intern at Fidelity

David San Antonio 鈥16, a technical intern from听Salem, New Hampshire,听is a 91制片厂 senior majoring听in computer science.


Whitney says employers are drawn to 91制片厂鈥檚 reputation for giving undergraduates opportunities to work one-on-one with faculty mentors, engage with more than 200 student organizations and pursue research through the Undergraduate Research Conference, one of nation鈥檚 largest conferences of its kind, with more than 1,300 participants in 2015.

Whitney says it鈥檚 not only the quality of the research, but the teamwork and collaborative problem-solving that is part of these experiences that is so valuable to students 鈥 and potential empolyers.

鈥淵ou can have a 3.8 GPA, and that鈥檚 great. But what these companies are looking for is what kind of employee you鈥檒l be in the long term,鈥 Whitney says. 鈥淐an you talk with people in a professional manner? Are you comfortable managing and overseeing projects? Can you write? Set priorities? Do you challenge yourself, and are you okay working outside your comfort zone? Companies like Fidelity are really interested in finding well-rounded students who can be the next generation of their future leaders.鈥

Sarah Sullivan, who graduated from 91制片厂 in 2014, was a Fidelity student intern who was hired into the company鈥檚 full-time Leap Program during her senior year. Leap is Fidelity鈥檚 graduate technology program that provides six months of learning, development and coaching designed to help recent IT graduates become best-in-class IT professionals.

鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 ask for a better post-graduate transition,鈥 Sullivan says.

Sullivan considered several other large employers in New England before choosing to work at Fidelity based on the company culture she experienced during her internship.

鈥淓ven though Fidelity is a large company, you don鈥檛 feel like just another number here,鈥 Sullivan says. 鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 contributing and making a difference every day 鈥 and Fidelity really allowed me to put my skills to work right away.鈥