No Internship VS. Bad Internship. Suggestions?
Hello everyone,
Here is the situation: I am currently a sophomore student at a non-target, due for graduation in January 2017. My objective is to get an internship at a BB before graduation that would, eventually turn into a ft offer.
I did an internship last summer at a no-name company where I was basically sitting on a chair, doing nothing but that for the entire time. In September/October I applied for all the major/medium size banks and boutiques but didn't get any success.
Jumping to now, I applied for some openings I came across on LinkedIn and got one positive answer: Fisher Investments. I had just checked their corporate website and they seemed fairly interesting at the time. However after receiving a positive answer, I checked some reviews here on WSO, Glassdoor and others; the ratio of good to bad is about 1:20... Basically more than 90% of the time, interns and employees gave very negative feedback and did not recommend the company.
Would you recommend me to take the job (knowing that I have no internship) or do something "else" ?
I don't know what else you could do. If you have no other offers lined up, you have no choice but to take what you have in hand, even if it is with a crappy company. Better that you get some experience than nothing at all.
What specifically did people say? as long as some smart people who came from decent places are there, you should take it.
Some examples of Glassdoor reviews
Pros Some of the people I met. Cons Narcissistic management culture who are neither organized nor actually able. Bullying and arrogance are the preferred management style. Lacking real industry experience and breadth of knowledge across the whole team. Fisher is not at all what it first seems - really just a co-ordinated con job described as behavioural investing. Advice to Management Get real folks, what worked 20 years ago is no longer appropriate.
Pros Many of the disgruntled employees on this site are really young and this was their first job. They don't know what the real world is like and think they should be paid well for limited experience and mediocre performance. Fisher provides a ton of upside and demands excellence. The average millennial coming out of college is entitled and lazy. Work hard and you will be rewarded. Benefits are solid... I'm not micromanaged. I know what is expected of me and where I stand. Show Less Cons This job isn't for you if you just want a good pay check to coast through your day. Discount brokers like Schwab and Fidelity are a better fit. Don't take a job like this unless you are ambitious and willing to work really hard to get where you want to be financially. In fact, maybe the financial sales industry as a whole isn't a fit for you with that type of mindset, that's ok. This industry isn't for everyone. Financial sales in general has a high fail rate for careers compared to other industries but it also can be the most financially rewarding for the amount of education required for entry. Very few career choices require just a bachelor's degree and you can be making 6 figures within a couple of years. It's a results driven industry where you don't have to play politics to get where you want climbing that "corporate ladder"... trust me, that can be very frustrating. Be honest with yourself about your personality and what your strengths and weaknesses are when you decide your next career choice b/c a Fisher job is the type that you will either love it or hate it depending on who you are as a person and the easy thing to do is blame Fisher when you just weren't a good fit to begin with. Show Less Advice to Management Hire less young people fresh out of college and more employees that have 5+ years of experience that know what this industry expects of them. Helpful (1)
Pros Good pay, unique business model, benefits. Cons Poor middle management, claims to be a meritocracy... But isn't, low motivation in upper management Advice to Management The business model is great and FI is better than most of the competition in the money management industry. Continue to innovate. Stop with the junk mailing and cold calling. People will be interested in the service and will want to speak with us if only they knew what we did. Focus on branding and helping the prospect base understand and FI does not sell investments and is not a broker/dealer. Stop having AE's call prospects that have repeatedly said they are not interested and/or don't pick up the phone.
Thank you yig, this sums it up pretty well!
In any case, like Gangster Putin suggested, I will probably end up taking the offer as "something" is indeed better than nothing at all.
Isn't Fisher basically a PWM shop, at least from what I know of them? And that's a pretty typical sophomore to junior internship, correct? And regardless like Putin said, you gotta go with what you got.
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