I was called one day after posting my resume on monster.com asking if I would be interested in working for Fisher Investments as an investment counselor and relocating to Vancouver, WA. I said that I would be and the recruiter set up a phone interview to discuss further. When the time came for the phone interview a week later, the recruiter did not call at the time he specified. A few hours later after my family got home, the phone rang and it was a different person altogether. With baby crying and all the pandemonium at dinner time, I walked through my resume and she explained the job to me and set up another phone interview with someone in management handling special projects.? That interview was a week later and was more in depth conversation around capital markets. I thought it went well and received a phone call a few days later asking if I would be interested in traveling to Vancouver for a day of interviewing. I accepted and flight, hotel, and car arrangements were made and paid for by Fisher along with $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner expense allowance. I flew in by coach, rented the car, and checked not a Marriott Suites hotel down the road from the office. With an hour to spare I did my surveillance of their office. It was in a nondescript bldg, no name identifying the name of the company so I was a little unnerved but I was willing to give it my best. I had to be buzzed in and was met by the recruiter. Checking out the scene all the while, the office was row after row of desks, boiler room style, and all seemed relatively young. I was escorted into one of their conference rooms, not very impressive, and was offered water while waiting for the first of the interviewers, a nice lady who asked me to walk her through my resume, this was the 4th time doing so, but I went ahead and told the story. It lasted for a little over and hour and then she was going to get another interviewer, another mgmt figure who seemed to be the bad cop of the process. Round 2 started and it seemed and the sun started beaming in the glass, I had to ask for more water sine it was getting hot, and then came the questions, Why should we hire you? Why would you be a good fit as an IC? Seemed to be somewhat condescending as if he had something to prove. That lasted about an hour as well. Got a break then had another person to speak with, but only for a few minutes. He was their boss and had only to questions for me, What negative things have you heard about us and if you weren't allowed to be in the financial services industry what would you be? After reading on the complaints board and those who have tried to sue them, I told him based on my research that the big problem I've read was that the portfolios aren't customized and that everyone seems to have all the same positions no matter what their risk tolerance was. He acknowledged the answer and then I answered the next question. After that it was over, spoke with the recruiter on the way out and was told I would receive a call a week later. As I was used to, no call. Another week went by, received a msg saying no word yet from the hiring manager, then at the beginning of the 3rd week after the interview received the word that they would not be moving forward. Was relieved since I would have had to give up my 7&63 to take a position trying to retain clients that may have been upset with the management of their portfolios plus it really looked like their was no room to grow with the company and their business model is solely based on the stock market, as it falls so would layoffs. I hope that those considering employment with this firm think twice, good if you ate right out of college and willing to drink the Fisher Koolaid, but if you are looking to advance your skills in finance, you probably should look elsewhere as I have.
