Lourdes started at Fidelity on Valentine’s Day 2006 as a Defined Benefits Actuarial Testing Consultant in New York City. “When I started working at Fidelity, I had three small children and over an hour daily commute. I was amazed at how much Fidelity cared about work-life balance and given the long-term opportunities offered, I quickly realized this is where I wanted to grow my career.”
Since then, she has held six completely different positions in technology and business across four business units. Today, she is a Squad Leader on an Agile Technology team and reflects on her journey at Fidelity and how something she heard when she started at Fidelity became the guiding principle for her career.
“I remember early in my journey, one of our incoming CIOs advised that you should always be adding skills to your ‘career toolbox’ and planning for your next career move every three years. You really can do all of that at Fidelity and I’ve put it to the test! Fidelity has always given me learning opportunities to move laterally and have paid for outside training opportunities if something wasn’t offered internally. They invest in their associates and are focused on building the whole you.”
Another piece of advice Lourdes shares is to not feel limited in your role. “My last role was as a customer experience product manager, but I just started a new role in January as a squad lead in the technology space. I had already acquired most of the skills they were looking for from other roles, but it is a new technology space. ‘I don’t have everything I need for that role’ usually stops people from pursuing new roles, but I say, ‘Why NOT me?’ If you’re up for the challenge you can do anything at Fidelity!”
