Career Advice

Fidelity's best guidance for landing job opportunities or making a career change

Fidelity gives you expert tips for dealing with a down job market. Increase your chances of changing careers and landing a job with these best practices.

March 24, 2026 8 minute read

Struggling to find a new job? Fidelity recruiters have pro tips for you. In this article, we'll help you increase your chances of landing a new job or changing careers. Keep reading to learn how to be more flexible, strategic, and proactive in your job search.

Fidelity has plenty of job opportunities available. Join our talent network to hear about them first.

Key takeaways

Broaden your job search to consider new roles, industries that feel like a good fit, or locations to increase your chances.
Leverage transferrable skills, such as customer service or teamwork, when looking at a new industry, such as finance, or a new company, such as Fidelity.
Tailor your resume to every job application, going line by line with the job description to highlight your most relevant skills and experience.

When economic uncertainty increases, businesses tend to pull back or even pause hiring efforts. It’s easy to feel invisible and overlooked in a down job market, especially if you’re doing everything right but not getting any traction.

Don’t abandon hope—Fidelity recruiters have your back with our best advice for applying to jobs, finding Fidelity job opportunities, and changing careers.

Fidelity job opportunities extend beyond finance—perfect for career changers

Big companies like Fidelity employ thousands of people in all sorts of roles. While Fidelity is a financial services company, you don’t need a finance background to work here because we’ll teach you everything you need to know.

“We’re not as concerned with that financial knowledge. It’s being a team player, being coachable, understanding and appreciating feedback, and having that drive to help people that matters,” says Michael, a talent acquisition partner at Fidelity.

Fidelity goes above and beyond when it comes to providing associates with financial literacy and knowledge. “Our training is world class. There’s so much support and training for new hires that you’re set up for success in the long term,” says Tierney, a talent acquisition partner at Fidelity.

With more than 40 lines of business, Fidelity offers ample career vitality, mobility, and growth opportunities. You can learn about new sides of the firm, explore new roles, and join new teams to keep your skills sharp, learn new things, and grow professionally. “There are so many different paths you can take: pursue licensing, do operations, process transactions, recruit people,” says Tierney. “Fidelity is a truly great place where you can have a long-term career.”

Fidelity also gives you a chance to work with exciting technology. Fidelity has a long-standing history of adaptation and adoption—in the 1970s, we were among the first to use a mainframe; in the 1980s, we sold stocks over the phone before many others; in the aughts, we adopted the cloud; and now we’re exploring AI, quantum computing, and more. As a technologist, you could work on emerging technologies, such as blockchain or machine learning engineering.

How to match your skill sets and interests with job applications or making a career change

Look at your skill sets. What do you do really well? List those things.

The first step to finding the right role is understanding the roles that fit you. Make a list of your skill sets and look for roles that require or prefer those skills. This will give you a leg up when applying because recruiters will quickly see that you have the experience necessary to succeed in the role and may wish to learn more about you.

What are you interested in and curious about?

Make a list of all the topics, roles, and industries that pique your interest.

Are you interested in building a long-term career? “If you have the excitement to build a career with mobility and vitality, that will help keep you engaged and moving forward,” says Tierney.

Do you want to help people? “I wasn’t seeking a finance position, but I knew I wanted to make a difference by helping people,” says Michael. “I’ve had that possibility tenfold at Fidelity.”

Do you want to learn new ideas and skills? “Being in this environment is about learning,” says Michael. "There are multiple layers to learn and places to go so you’re not stuck and you’re always growing.”

Do you want to learn more about money and how it works? “I talk with a lot of candidates who didn’t have financial literacy growing up,” says Michael. “They want to help themselves, their families, and our customers prepare for retirement and invest wisely.”

Find commonalities between your skill sets and your interests

Apply to jobs in the areas where your skills and interests overlap. Prioritize the roles that are the best fit for you, and apply to those first. Be open to roles and industries lower on your list—you never know where you might find your next job.

If you’re a recent graduate, consider enrolling in a specialized program to help yourself gain work experience. At Fidelity, we have entry-level job opportunities available.

How to be more strategic in your job applications:

Apply to one role at a company at a time so you can focus your effort on making that application as good as it can be. If you apply to numerous roles in a short amount of time, that makes you seem like a less serious candidate. “Serial applying dilutes the quality of your applications,” says Albert, a talent acquisition partner at Fidelity. “It makes you seem unfocused.”

That said, recruiters look at your entire application history. If you’ve applied to multiple roles over several months or years, that shows your ongoing interest in the company. Applying to 50 roles in two weeks is a red flag.
Focus on roles that match your skill sets and interests. For example, if you have customer service experience and want to help people, consider pursuing a Fidelity customer service role. If you’ve worked as a back-end developer but are interested in working on the front end, consider a user-interface role.
Apply at the right time of year. Hiring typically slows down during the holidays and can take longer during the summer, when many people tend to go on vacation. If you’re applying across a wide region or nationally, different regions may have different hiring markets or needs, which could speed up or slow down the process, so be mindful of that.

Ways to make your resume stand out, especially for a Fidelity job opportunity

Your resume is the main vessel for telling your story. Help a recruiter make connections between your experience and the role you’re applying for. Here’s how to do so:

Itemize your strengths and abilities. Then focus on the skills that are transferable to the role at hand. Here are some examples of soft skills that can help you stand out, but be sure to highlight your hard skills, such as certifications, technologies you know, and technical skills.

Customer service		Technology
Experience/skill	Why it matters	Experience/skill	Why it matters
Active listening	“We need to listen to our customers and uncover additional needs they may not say right off the bat,” said Tierney.	Collaboration, communication, and leadership	“Even if you’ll be heads down in code most of the day, being able to collaborate with your partners, work peer to peer with principals, or coach junior engineers is critical,” said Albert.
Resourceful	“We don’t expect you to know all the answers, but we want you to be able to find the answers,” said Tierney.	Intellectual curiosity	“Someone who’s intellectually curious always wants to add more tools to their tool belt,” said Albert.
Desire to help people	“If it looks as if you truly care about people and want to make a difference, those things stand out to me,” said Michael.	Ability to take feedback well	“Someone who can take feedback is someone who can grow in their role,” said Albert.

Tailor your resume to each job application. Go line by line with the job description and your resume, putting the most important and relevant information up front.
Highlight your education, licenses, credentials, and accomplishments. Be sure to call out the results of your efforts with quantifiable data points (e.g., decreased redundancies by 30%).

If you’re applying to a technology role, don’t just list the technologies you’ve used; explain how you used them in practice and at what scale.

Network yourself into a new job

For many of us, networking can feel transactional or downright disingenuous. “Reframe networking as a way of building relationships,” says Tierney. Ask yourself and the person you want to get to know better how you can be a resource for them and their company.

“Be direct about what you want to learn, and think about how you can help them,” says Michael. Do you want to learn how they got where they are? More about what their role is? What it's like working at their company? What do they need help with? Make a list of questions in advance so you’re prepared.

You don’t have to cold-call or email people to network. You can start with people you already know, whether that’s family, friends, or friends of friends. Start with people you have a connection with.

Once you’ve connected with everyone you can in your inner circle, start reaching out to looser connections. That could be someone who graduated from your college or who shares a common connection on LinkedIn. Or maybe it’s someone who has the job title you want or who works at the company you want to work at.

“Be strategic in reaching out and getting visibility for yourself,” says Michael. “Reach out to recruiters and leaders in the space or company you’re looking at. Tell them that you’re interested in learning more, and ask whether you can speak with them about it.”

Knowing someone at the company where you want to work can help elevate your chances of being considered for a role. “When people know you and can speak for you with a manager or recruiter, that puts you more top of mind, which is key as you’re fighting for jobs in a tougher market,” says Michael.

Be proactive in your search to land a new job or change careers

Just like compound interest, small steps over time can add up to big gains. “Give yourself small, attainable goals to help yourself stay motivated and looking forward,” says Tierney.

Use technology to your advantage. Set up automated job alerts, and subscribe to newsletters. If you're looking for roles at Fidelity, join Fidelity’s talent network.

Focus on what you have control over—increasing your knowledge and skill sets. Take free courses, attend webinars, get new certifications to enhance your skills, and give yourself a better shot at landing a new job. Even if you have an advanced degree, you may still need to upskill to remain competitive. Stay up to date on industry news and trends.

Build your personal brand. Update your LinkedIn profile and engage with thought leaders in your field. Share your own ideas and experiences. If you’re applying for a technology role, create a GitHub profile and link it to your LinkedIn profile so others can see examples of your work. Focus on the most relevant programming languages and platforms for the jobs you’re applying to and be sure to include the number of tasks you’ve done.

Continue expanding your network by attending local meetups, events, and conferences. Stay in contact with your existing network.

If you keep striking out on your job search, it could be time for introspection. Seek feedback from trusted people who will give it to you straight. Do you need to be more targeted with your search or expand your search? Do you need to develop new skills? Do you need more experience? Ask someone in your network for their advice. If you’ve connected with a recruiter, you can ask them for feedback as well.

Use our handy checklist.

Persistence is key. Stay hungry and resilient. It can be confusing and demoralizing to be rejected. But it takes just one person and one job to give you a chance.