Fidelity International |

We know that interviews can be daunting. One of the best ways to feel confident is do your research, think about some of the questions which might come up, and practice delivering answers to common questions. We’ve already spoken about how you can prepare by identifying your strengths . In this article, we will talk you through a good structure for explaining how you’ve demonstrated those strengths before.

What is the STARR technique?

STARR stands for:

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result
• Reflection

Using this technique to structure your answers is an easy way for you to check that you are giving an interviewer the right depth of information. You have very likely heard of the STAR method; at Fidelity International, we like to add the extra R for reflection - we think that reflecting on your actions and how you might do something differently next time, can be the difference between a good answer and a GREAT answer.

How can I use STARR in my answers?

Here’s an example of how you might answer an interview question using STARR!

• Situation/Context – Demonstrate an understanding of the strength and why it is important:
  
  • I anticipate in my intern/graduate programme at Fidelity, I will be working across and for multiple teams. This may mean that I have multiple conflicting deadlines. Flexibility will be really important to manage this well, as well as stakeholder management.
• Task – Show an understanding of how this strength relates to the role/programme you have applied for:
  
  • Staying too fixed on a plan, when I’ve received new information or a new deadline, could mean I fail to prioritise the most critical tasks. Flexibility and agility will be required to constantly re-evaluate my workload and ensure I am focusing on high-value and urgent tasks first. I also need to ensure that when I do this, I am keeping stakeholders informed of any delays or adjustments, so they have a reasonable expectation of what I can deliver, and by when.
• Action – how would you demonstrate these strengths? How have you done so in the past?
  
  • At the beginning, I would ask my manager and mentor for advice and structure to help me understand what is most important and to prioritise my work. You need to understand the different stakeholders and tasks well to be able to prioritise independently, so I anticipate I will need support to do this initially.

However, I can also put in place structures to help me keep on top of all of the different deadlines and tasks I’ve been asked to do, as well as my plan for how I think I should approach them. In the past I’ve used a colour-coded calendar, and to-do lists, which helped me when I revised for my exams. The colour-coding helps me see if I have spent too much time on a particular task depending on the value, and I used to do my to-do lists the evening before, so when I started my day, I already knew what I had to do. I find this makes me much more effective, as I waste much less time when I have a plan for the day already.

As I said, I also know that I will need to be adaptable and reprioritise from day to day. I should also constantly communicate with my team so they are aware of what is on my plate, and any areas where I might need support or where I am concerned that I may struggle to meet a deadline. I am used to having fixed deadlines, like for assignments, so I think this is something I will need to adjust to. I am excited for the challenge.

• Result – What do you think the result will be?
  
  • By proactively managing my workload and conflicting deadlines, I will ensure that I can support my team, flag any issues before they become a serious problem, meet deadlines, and ensure that I am providing strong customer service to our clients.
• Reflection – Where have you done this in the past, what did you learn, and what?
  
  • Whilst I attended university, I have worked in hospitality to earn extra money. To make this a success, I had to be very organised both in my work and personal life. My shifts changed week-to-week, and so I had to plan my work around them flexibly. In reality, this often meant starting work on assignments far in advance in advance to ensure that I was prioritising my studies and that my work didn’t have a negative impact.
  • Once, I got given 18 hours of shifts on the week before an assignment was due. This was 8 hours more than my normal pattern. I couldn’t find shift cover and wasn’t able to take it off. On that occasion, I spoke to a lecturer who gave me an extension so I could finish my assignment on my off-days the following week. I believe the extension was granted because I typically managed my work with my shifts very well, and so a request for an extension was unusual.

How do I use STARR to prepare for an assessment centre?

Once you have identified your strengths, come up with some examples of how you have identified them - at work, in your personal life, at school, or at university. Use the STARR technique to write out these examples and practice speaking them aloud. You can also see if the employer has published a success profile, like the key strengths in our article here , to guide you.

Fidelity has apprenticeship, internship, industrial placement, and graduate roles available across our business, from Equity Research to Sustainable Investing to Sales and Marketing to Innovation and Digital Design. All of our roles are designed to give you a broad experience, and help you feel empowered to kickstart your career. We hope this article has been helpful; we look forward to receiving an application from you soon!

At Fidelity International, our process is strengths-based. Unlike a competency-based interview, a strength-based interview focuses on what you enjoy doing, rather than just a list of your accomplishments. Questions may revolve around your passions and hobbies; things that you are proud of and that inspire you.

Strengths-based interviews are designed to draw out potential. That’s why we don’t require work experience, certain grades, or specific technical knowledge. However, we do want to see you demonstrate strengths that we believe will help you to succeed in our industry.

How do you identify your own strengths - and how do you understand whether those fit the strengths required for a role?

What is a strength?

You may have heard of competency-based interviews. A strength is different from a competency because it’s not only something that you do really well, but also something that you want to do often, and derive energy from. Most of us have something that we’re pretty good at, but really hate doing - that means, it’s not a strength! We want to know that you can perform the role, but we also want to know whether a role will motivate, energise, and excite you.

Examples of strengths include:

• Curiosity
• Adaptability
• Resilience
• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Problem-Solving
• Analytical Mindset
• Integrity

This is not an exhaustive list! We suggest you check out our key strengths article HERE if you want to learn more about what these mean, and how to demonstrate them.

How do I identify my strengths?

Here’s a few simple steps to help you identify your strengths:

1. Write down a list of tasks or activities you enjoy and think you’re good at.
   • These don’t have to be work-related - it could be a school project, or the fact you love running
2. Dig deeper and ask yourself WHY you enjoy those things.
   • If you like running, what is it about that which makes it enjoyable? For example, is it competing with yourself to produce your best time? Is it being able to switch off and deeply focus? Is it actually running with friends and supporting each other to improve? Identify your driver for that activity.
3. Look at the list you have created and find some trends. It is easiest to do this if the list is written down, as you can physically draw links and connections. This is how you can then identify your strengths.
   • The strengths are not the tasks you identified, they are the underlying skills and qualities which make you good at those tasks and makes them motivating for you.
   • For example, you may notice there’s four or five things you’ve written down which involve an element of working with people or collaborating, or you may notice that two or three things were enjoyable to you because they involved designing a process. It’s collaborating and process design that are your strengths.
4. Link those strengths to the responsibilities in the job description!
   • If you love pushing yourself to better your time, and you are applying for a role which involves change management, at the end of that change process, you want to deliver an improved outcome for the business, which is something that motivates you.
   • You can also link your strengths to our Fidelity values. For example, we want people to be bold and brave - do you have examples of innovation where you did something new or different? That’s brave!
5. Now think about your development areas - it’s okay to have some, we all do!
   • But think about perhaps why particular tasks or activities more difficult for you, following the same process as above.
   • Write down whether you have started/could you start to work on those, and what you can do to improve your skills in these areas.
   • Remember to consider whether a role is actually the right one for you! It is very unlikely a role will tick 100% of your strengths and not include anything you don’t enjoy as much, but if you are applying to a role that is 95% compromised of tasks which do not align with your strengths, might be better to consider a different role.

Top Tips

Here’s some more top tips:

• Talk about challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve learned from them, not just your successes.
• Throughout the interview, we want to hear specific examples, which is why identifying your strengths in advance can be helpful. Read our article HERE on effectively using the STARR model to help with preparing your examples ahead of an interview.
• However, don’t shoehorn in an example which doesn’t fit the question, just because you like it, or spent time memorising it.
• Don’t pretend something is a strength when it isn’t!

We hope this article has been helpful; we look forward to receiving an application from you! Fidelity International offers a range of opportunities in Dublin from summer internships to apprenticeships, to graduate roles. There really is something for everyone.

At Fidelity International, our process is strengths-based. Unlike a competency-based interview, a strength-based interview focuses on what you enjoy doing, not just what you can do. This approach allows our team to gain an insight into your natural abilities, which we can match to the role. We don’t require work experience, particular grades, or vast technical knowledge. However, we do want to see you demonstrate strengths that we believe will help you succeed in your chosen role. Here’s some of the strengths we look for at Fidelity:

1. Customer Focus: We think constantly about the needs of our customers, and how we can go above and beyond. Everyone at work has a customer, even if it’s not who would normally come to your mind. Some of our employees do deal with our external customers, the people who invest into our funds and other products. However, you may work in HR or Legal, in which case your customer might be a different team within the business.

You can demonstrate this strength by talking about an example from school, your personal life, or work experience, when you’ve put the customer first. How do you do that in your hospitality job? Is it by writing up guides to make difficult cocktails for the newer members of staff, so the quality is consistent every time? Is it completing training with your employer so you can understand your product offering further? Is it ensuring the premises are always clean and tidy? Think about what a customer would expect to see in your scenario, and the actions you have taken to ensure their experience meets those expectations.

2. Integrity: We look to do the right things by our customers, and by our colleagues, every time. Particularly in investing, being ethical is hugely important. Our business is built on trust, and if we lose the trust of our customers, partners, suppliers, or colleagues, they will not want to do business with us. Many people will have examples of showing integrity, whether it’s at work, in their personal life, or at school. Dig deep into those examples - was it difficult to show integrity in that situation? How did you come to your decision on what action to take? How did that make you feel? Throughout an assessment centre or interview, we would also expect you to think about whether your behaviour towards other candidates demonstrates integrity, and that you would be a good colleague.
3. Curiosity: We are looking for candidates who are curious about the world around them, financial and otherwise. We want to see that you’ve done your research - and more than looking at the ‘about us’ page on our website! Read the news; what is said about Fidelity, what do our representatives say in the media; what key issues our affecting our wider industry? What are our values, and how do those relate to current affairs? Where relevant, bring these research items up in answers. For example, when asking about an approach you’d take to a key issue, you could say - ‘well, I saw in the news that a competitor tried this approach, and this was the outcome. So, while I have not done this before, learning from the analysis on that in the media, perhaps this would be a good first step…’

It also demonstrates real curiosity to say - ‘I researched this programme, and while I know a lot about the personal investing side of the business, I didn’t really understand what workplace investing involved. Could you explain to me how the marketing team supports this part of the business?’. Remember, we don’t require you to have worked in our industry before, so we don’t expect you to understand everything. We love it when you ask questions!

4. Self-Starter: You’re motivated to make an impact and actively seek self-improvement – both academic and non-academic! Everyone has development areas, including the people who will be interviewing you. It shows impressive maturity and self-reflection to be able to talk openly and honestly about your development areas. It’s even better if you can talk about your plan for addressing those, and where Fidelity could support you. However, remember you are still in an assessment environment. It would be difficult if you were to say you are the ‘worst ever’ at something, or that you really hate a particular task and would avoid it wherever you could. Identifying your strengths in advance can help you avoid this happening.
5. Adaptability: The world of investment management is fast changing, so you need to be ready to adapt. In fact, this is true of every job. Think about the world today versus 10 years ago! Change can be difficult and scary, but it is often necessary, including the workplace. You can show adaptability in many ways throughout an interview or assessment centre. We’re sure you’ll have many examples to talk about, where you needed to embrace change. Use the STARR model and take the interviewer on a journey through that time with you.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but we hope it helps you take your first steps in preparing for an interview! Don’t forget to check out our article HERE about how to identify your strengths. There are many strengths beyond the ones mentioned in this article, and you should feel confident in highlighting them. Our article on using the STARR model will help with that!

We hope to see an application from you soon.

My name is Joshua Ihenacho and I’m a Technology Graduate at Fidelity International. I started as an Industrial Placement student, and loved my year so much, that I came back full-time! The role that technology plays in the financial services industry wasn’t something I’d truly considered or understood before. This wasn’t the career I’d expected to build when I started my degree, but I am really enjoying it. I hope my experiences inspire you to find the path that’s right for you, as well.

I attended Loughborough University and studied Information Technology Management for Business. Fidelity International came to my attention through a careers seminar on campus. I then used TargetJobs to look up more information on the business, and the roles available. Definitely take advantage of reading their posts with interview advice! You can also watch their YouTube videos and attend online events to find out more about the business and the application process.

Right now, I am a Business Analyst stroke Technical Analyst within the Enterprise Data team. To explain this a little more; I act as the facilitator between understanding the needs of the business process I am working on and creating the systems which democratise this knowledge for stakeholders. What this means in practice is varied. I’ll often find myself researching and analysing internal technology, implementing changes to our systems, voicing improvements, testing, planning and monitoring how all of these activities all fit to the bigger picture of Fidelity’s strategic direction. As Technology & Digital in Fidelity is a global function, I am often sitting in calls with senior business managers and technical specialists to ensure my tasks are aligned with the priorities of the business.

My favourite part of the programme is how hands-on it is. The best experience so far has been the 8-week technology graduate project that I just completed. Graduates were grouped into teams and assigned real projects to help expose and equip us with knowledge of our Technology & Digital agenda, before joining our main placement teams. This was a brilliant way to understand what Fidelity is trying to achieve, and to feel part of the progress we’re making. The opportunities on the graduate scheme are always evolving and I’m excited to see what they have in store for me next.

The people here are a big part of what makes Fidelity unique. As a global community there is real push to ensure the well-being and mental health of everyone is considered. This makes it encouraging to come into work every day. I feel like I am valued as a person, as well as for my contribution to the business. A perfect example of this is the fact that I chose to come back after my placement year, despite the fact that I had been on my placement during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The working world as we knew it was turned on its head, and it was a really challenging time for a lot of businesses, bringing a lot of confusion and uncertainty for employees. However, I still remember how we were treated by the company - simply, as real people with real concerns and worries. Initiatives were set up to ensure we all had adequate working from home arrangements and communication was constantly pushed to ensure our needs were reviewed, understood, and met. Welfare was put at the forefront of the conversation. This same supportive attitude is still evident today and definitely makes me feel valued.

If I could offer one tip to people looking for their graduate job, it would be to be curious at all times. Curiosity is one of our key business behaviours, and the message really rings through the programme - no one has all the answers, so we’re all in the same boat. Technology is a big ship that never stops sailing. If you’re truly passionate about technology, bring that into your application. Give specific examples when you speak to people, bring it out with how you structure your CV. Remember that you don’t need to know everything too! Focus on what you do know - and what you want to learn. That curiosity and desire to engage in challenging subject areas will make you stand out; lead with it and you’ll be fine.

I’d also really encourage you to bring your full self to any placement, job, or interview. This was something I had to learn. Don’t shrink yourself in any room you are in - you have a voice, learn to use it. Confidence and the ability to articulate your ideas are really valued here. Don’t shy away from it, even when it feels intimidating to challenge someone, or voice your opinion in a room of more experienced people. Being yourself at work allows you and others to create space and confidently shine in your spaces together. What this creates is a synergy between how you see yourself and how you’re perceived. If you feel you can confidently express your best self at work, you’ll thrive and excel, meaning other people can visibility see the space you have taken up and draw energy from you - whether that is motivation, encouragement or support. When you’re yourself at work, you’re no longer acting just in your own interest, you pass the baton for others to follow. For me, that is the most important thing; being able to encourage others to do what they didn’t think they had the capacity to do. I want anyone who reads this to know that you can and should go after opportunities you really want. It might not always go the way you want it to, but as you learn and grow, you’ll find out where you thrive - and it may surprise you. Who knows, I might see you at Fidelity International soon!

Hi! I’m Julia, and I’m a Technology Industrial Placement student at Fidelity International, which is an investment management company. I’m having a brilliant year and wanted to write about my experiences and key advice, for anyone who is looking to start a career in Tech and is unsure of where to start, which is how I felt!

When I am not on placement, I attend Canterbury Christ Church University, and I study Computer Forensics and Security. I found Fidelity International through an advertised placement on TargetJobs. I knew I wanted to do a year in industry placement, but I wasn’t sure exactly where my skills could be useful. Financial services wasn’t something I had considered, but there’s great opportunities here.

For example, I am currently working with the Information Security team. Essentially this means ensuring we are compliant across all critical areas of Information Security, which is a really important part of maintaining our operating environment. Not only could we face legal difficulties if we aren’t properly compliant, but we pride ourselves on conducting our business with integrity and trust. Our clients, partners, and customers, trust us to take Information Security seriously.

As part of my role, I’m tasked with producing a weekly compliance report to identify areas which need more assistance with compliance. I will then contact the relevant asset owners, working together on a plan to ensure these areas are well-supported. It requires me to be extremely pro-active, to ensure we are maintaining our high standards across the business. I also have a few self-learning hours across the week, working towards IT certificates which will help me later in my career. We are given lots of time to attend and complete trainings, which is one of the things that attracted me to this placement.

Apart from that, I really like the people here at Fidelity. The opportunity to learn from them, hear their experiences in their careers and be mentored by them is something I am very grateful for and really enjoy doing. It is not a hierarchical business at all, people are always very happy to have a conversation with you or help you out. I haven’t felt self-conscious about the fact that I’m still learning, and its clear that my team values my ideas. This isn’t just limited to being on the placement either. I can see how Fidelity values its employees and how appreciated they feel. I might be based in the UK, but from speaking to colleagues all around the world, I’m positive that that is also the case in the other 25+ locations we’re based in.

Speaking of different teams and locations, my favourite part of this programme is being able to move around different teams. It has been an amazing opportunity to find out exactly what I’m interested in and want to pursue later in my career. I’ve spent time with many teams so far, ranging from Threat Intelligence to Financial Crime, each one providing me with great insight into the different roles, how they support the business, and the different ways of working.

I am based out in the Kingswood office, in Surrey. It’s a really amazing campus, with loads of facilities - I wish I knew about all the services they provided much earlier! For example, there’s a free shuttle bus which takes you to the office from many train stations. Knowing this would have helped me plan my move for the year better, so my advice is to ask as many questions as possible when you are looking to join.

I’d also really emphasise that you shouldn’t stress about not being an expert programmer, not knowing all the policies straight away, or lacking some skills relevant to these jobs. You’re here to learn, gain experience, and come out with a little bit more knowledge of the Technology & Digital world than you had before. No one expects you know everything, so don’t have that expectation of yourself. In fact, you’ll make the most of your year if you stay curious and keep asking questions. One thing I’ve learned is that you never stop learning and improving yourself, no matter how far you are into your career. The people at Fidelity really embrace the value in learning and that’s what this programme is about. I feel much more prepared and confident about the career I want to make for myself, and it’s thanks to my year here.