Pros
Some employees are genuinely excellent (although many are leaving due to the Cons). I met several really good co-workers, many of which I still talk to today. I could see this being an acceptable job for analysts or juniors to get some experience (don't expect a promotion for doing work above your seniority level or for pay to keep up with inflation). General compensation is competitive and benefits are good (but expect to do tasks above your level that you won't be compensated for, so keep that in mind going in).
Cons
To put it in perspective, I created this account just to warn people about this place as on paper it sounds great. Was hired in the Canada CRM TC. Heard great things about them in the past and the timing worked out well so gave it a shot. Started out bad and somehow got worse over time. The hiring process is long and tedious (the background checking company used is a joke and dealing with them is a part time job for 4 weeks) however I will say my recruiter was great and helped me overcome some of the obstacles. You will go through a couple of days of "bootcamp" which is more of a getting to know the company, your benefits and some of the new hires. This was fine and was actually encouraging that it might be a good place to work. Then you get assigned to a project and you start to see the cardboard houses fall over (like in an old western movie). My first project was over half new hires (bad sign). One good thing was about half of the people I worked with were excellent (the other half couldn't do their own jobs, didn't have a clue and were painful to interact with). Project was drastically different in layout from the bootcamp. Transition from Sales to Delivery was non-existent (and a common problem) so lots of rework and wondering what happened and what was sold to the client. Scope? Non existent. Roles and responsibilities? Non existent. Figure it out on every project you go on. If you are lucky you will get a project email at the start that includes your login credentials for the client (often times you will wait weeks before getting client access) and your title (never what you are supposed to do). This isn't great as what you do varies dramatically between projects and each project is drastically different in format (with a common thread of chaos). So the first step you would think is to ask senior management about the process? Maybe even ask about the setup of projects or the bizarre staffing (one project had 14 leads)? No, they will never admit there is a problem. Have multiple leads doing the exact same role with no outlined responsibilities? Figure it out! Have 6 hours a day of meetings with the client? Figure out how to deliver for 8 hours AND have those meetings! Clients are pushing back on scope and want to be included in all internal meetings? We totally have your back, as long as that means doing literally nothing and denying we do directly to the client! Project was poorly architected and it won't possibly work from sales? Figure it out in delivery! Client isn't happy about the project? There is always next project with them (spoiler, many are leaving)! Need a UI/UX team member for a couple of weeks on a project just to do a mock-up? That INTERNAL department will try and extort your department into hiring them on for the whole project or they will tell the client you can't meet the design standards, even if it is a lie! Want a raise? Sorry, we didn't meet the ~22% growth target (seriously) and only had 7% growth so... 0% raise for everyone! Have a HR issue? Don't worry, our multiple HR group emails will pass the buck between each other until someone who knows what they are doing takes on the ticket! They will also find a way to blame you at every possible turn. Senior management doesn't want to change the process and would rather everyone else just deal with the problems as they try and coast to retirement. Another major problem is favouritism. Join the running/cycling club, you will fast track your career 100%. Work hard and go above and beyond for your client/employer? Eh we didn't see it because we are in office and you work remotely. Then there is career opportunities. You will not get promoted unless you are "working at the level above you for 2-3 years to show you can do it". Even then, it is a game of favouritism as they have to vote on it and they always vote for in office employees even if they are useless. Think it is over when you do leave? No. They will hound you for benefits paid or other "overpayment" issues (because payroll can't figure out how to remove people). They also get you to sign up for electronic tax returns when you leave KNOWING there is an issue with retrieving them when you leave. I have heard other departments are less terrible, but I am not so sure as I have dealt with some and it seems to be a systematic problem of incompetence. Avoid the hype and move on to anywhere else.
