Which financial services career is right for you: Fidelity customer relationship advocate or financial customer associate?

If you love helping and educating people, this is an ideal role for you. You’ll be able to turn your passion for service into a rewarding career you can feel good about. It’s a great option for those coming from teaching, nursing, social services, retail, or hospitality.

You’ll need to be able to learn quickly and retain information accurately to get licensed. The fully paid licensing training takes about 16 weeks for most associates, though the program is self-paced and can be completed in less or more time, depending on your individual learning style. “It’s some tough material to learn, but you can learn it. Fidelity keeps you on track to hit the milestones,” said Lori. “There’s nothing I’m prouder of myself for. It’s such a sense of accomplishment. It’s a big thing.”

Getting licensed opens several potential career paths to more complex customer interactions. For example, you could become a financial advisor and work face-to-face with customers in branches. “The growth possibilities are endless. You could go into retirement, college planning, high-net-worth, investment solutions, planning consultants, the help desk, or becoming a learning lead. Even within roles, there are opportunities to take on more responsibility and mentor people,” said Lori.

Being a customer relationship advocate means being comfortable with variety, change, and surprise. “You’re not always going to have the answer, and that’s OK. Be open-minded,” said Lori.

If you check the boxes on several of the following attributes, you’re probably a good candidate for the customer relationship advocate role:

• You love helping people solve problems and can handle different types of situations, emotions, and conversations.
• You’re good at quickly reading people and interpreting a scenario appropriately.
• You’re empathetic and compassionate and have good boundaries.
• You don’t take things personally, knowing the difference between what relates to you and what doesn’t.
• You’re adaptable, flexible, and good at improvising.
• You’re efficient, action-oriented, and able to find suitable resolutions and leverage available resources.
• You can juggle multiple technology systems simultaneously.

If you pursue a customer relationship advocate role, you’ll want to be comfortable being on the phone and potentially working outside normal business hours. Fidelity’s customer relationship advocates work weekday and/or weekend shifts that can start as early as 5 a.m. and can end as late as 11 p.m. You’ll still have great work/life balance with a set schedule and consistent hours.

Reasons to start your financial services career as a Fidelity financial customer associate

Fidelity’s financial customer associate position is an ideal role for those with a high school diploma or equivalent, an associate or bachelor’s degree (preference for undergraduate degree in any field), and at least one year of customer service experience. 

If you want to focus on a single financial area, like retirement, this is a great opportunity for you. “I chose the workplace investing side on purpose. A lot of people don’t really pay much attention to retirement in general or understand the whole process. That was the case with my parents. Working on 401(k)s is a huge opportunity to help people—including myself and my family—better prepare for retirement,” said Gavin. Within retirement, there are several opportunities to specialize, helping people with pensions and tax-exempt accounts.

Being a financial customer associate means developing a rapport with customers and communicating effectively. You’ll need to be a great listener who can empathize and has strong social skills. “We’re at a point where the markets are going up, down, and sideways. People are calling in because they’re stressed about something. Customer service is central,” said Gavin.

Working as a financial customer associate gives you more routine and consistency than working as a customer relationship advocate. You can keep conversations with customers more professional and targeted. Rather than juggling multiple technology systems, you’ll be supporting basic technology troubleshooting.

Like the customer relationship advocate role, the financial customer associate role emphasizes work/life balance. You’ll also experience team support and recognition—you'll earn rewards as you progress through the training program. You’ll be able to bring your energy and passion for helping people to the team. This role works Monday through Friday, with 8-hour shifts starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at midnight. Fidelity offers pay differentials for later shifts, and financial customer associates get weekends off. The only fully remote option is in Omaha, Nebraska.