I worked at Fisher Investments for more than 3 years

Cons

This company is so backwards it’s unbelievable it’s still standing. The thinking and processes are so archaic, I felt like I was in a time warp. Lots of extra work and time is wasted because of the multitude of inefficiencies. Lots of smart, capable people are being severely underutilized and stunting their career growth potential. The company praises itself on innovation but I didn’t see evidence of that. Many good ideas are dismissed because 1) stuck in their old ways 2) limited knowledge and talent 3) limited resources to implement them 4) woefully incompetent management, all of which leads to 5) people just don’t care. Only a few people in the entire department had real marketing experience when I was there. Those people got quickly frustrated and bored once they realized what they’re going up against is a no-win situation. A large majority of the department had been at the firm for a year or less. This meant there wasn’t much learning to be had. It’s the blind leading the blind. Instead, you take up valuable brain space with the quirky methods of Fisher that are absolutely useless anywhere else. Heavy turnover is a huge red flag. During my time at the firm, many employees quit, some fired, this includes EVERY level of management – entry level to the top. A lot of new hires come into the company believing their role to be one thing, but then they get pulled in so many different directions they end up floundering with no direction at all. For a lot of transitioned employees from other departments, Marketing ends up being their last stop at Fisher Investments. It’s unsettling when you realize your job has been reduced to a laundry list of the most random tasks because no one knows what they’re doing and what to do with you. Another major problem is when people leave, they generally take their knowledge with them and leave everyone else to pick up the pieces. I can’t tell you how many times I heard about so-and-so from back in the day who built some database that no one knows how to work, or no ones understands the logic behind a particular process, and too bad they never taught anybody because they haven’t been able to find a replacement. Marketing falls right back to square 1 over and over again. It’s a vicious cycle and from what I hear, it’s been like this since the beginning so it’s unlikely Marketing will ever learn from their repeated mistakes. Limited resources is a major problem. Many employees are overloaded and yet somehow made to feel like they're not working hard enough. Having no life is like a badge of honor for a lot of managers. Working late night hours and weekends is something to brag about. So is missing lunch and eating from the vending machines all day long. Ten hours is a supremely long day, no one else I know in the Marketing industry works these forced hours. Long hours are a necessity from time to time, but mandatory? How about expanding the talent pool and hiring more people instead of running employees ragged? How about offering a little flexibility to demonstrate trust and respect for your employees? These rudimentary concepts are foreign ideals to Fisher Investments and they look down on such things as employee satisfaction and work-life balance. On top of this, every group always seems to have their token micro-managers who have no other skills but to play babysitter and track their team's comings and goings and stand over their shoulder to make sure they're working every single second of that 50-hour work week. Why doesn’t anyone ever tell them that their overbearing personalities is creating an unpleasant work environment? Do they not realize that all their irritating and condescending comments only serve to provide fodder for water cooler gossip and inspire job searches? Probably not, as these types are typically power-tripping egomaniacs who think they have dazzling personalities, beloved by all. Even some fellow teammates would make nasty comments about others and their schedule or workload, I had never experienced such all-encompassing negativity anywhere else before. All it takes is one person like that to make life hell at work. Whenever these people are around, there is palpable tension in the air. Having to constantly watch your back is never a good feeling. The Fisher culture is inexplicably weird with no sense of camaraderie. There are some nice people, but I never got the sense that anyone was particularly willing to share their knowledge. It was like pulling teeth to find someone willing to help you. My manager was largely unavailable and never provided an ounce of support or direction. Much of it had to do with the fact that my manager was completely unknowledgeable about my work and showed little interest in my career, so what would I learn from them anyway? Many meetings were ignored, emails unanswered, or I received snippy and vague responses as if I was a nuisance for trying to do my job. There were only 2 semi-competent managers I felt I could rely on, but they soon left which was unsurprising given the oppressive environment. After a while, all these things weigh down on you and only serve to demotivate. A lot of the higher-ups have an arrogance about them that oftentimes gives one the feeling you’re not important enough to be spoken to. It was a very stand-offish group that thrived off of excluding people they deemed unworthy. I was only spoken to if they ever needed anything from me, all other times I might as well have been invisible. Hearing people lose their temper or treating employees poorly was not uncommon. I found the environment to be so unprofessional and unwelcoming, that I never felt 100% comfortable working in it.