Pros
There was a pay check (albeit a small one - £1,800/month). Various opportunities for community involvement. Occasional work trips to Dublin. The building is on the outskirts of the Belfast City Centre, so some of the conference rooms have a decent view of the Lagan. Free flu shots.
Cons
Incredibly difficult to upskill - no sandbox environments or software that you can use to get more experience. Computer hardware breaks frequently, and the IT Team is limited in what they can do to address common issues. Heavy emphasis on optics and very little on substance. Management sells team members to clients as "experts in the field," when they clearly are not. Team members will sometimes spend months on the bench while waiting for a project to come in; but then when a project does come in, it almost never aligns with the team member's stated work stream or professional goals. I stayed at KPMG long enough to establish myself as a dependable employee, but then I left as soon as I got a better job offer somewhere else. It's a dead end for career development.
