Pros
- An awareness (not a thorough understanding) of mental health and the need for a work/life balance. - Nice new offices in key locations (London, Bristol, Birmingham). - Generally, you'll find that most people you work with are actually nice people with good intentions. I've made some great friends here that I'll continue to keep in touch with. - The appetite for change across the organisation is mostly there they just have no clue how to do it or attract the people who can.
Cons
- Whilst BT continue to soul-search for a new meaning beyond just selling Broadband, quick and desperate decisions are being made whilst ignoring most (if not all) of their own bias as well as their own customers to play catch up with their competitors. This causes a very stressful environment to thrive in and you're (Digital) often left serving the business as a supplier instead of a problem solver with the opportunity to truly innovate. - Probably the least qualified Senior Leadership team I've ever seen in an organisation of this size. Several Directors (including C suite) in Digital lack a fundamental understanding of how to design and build modern digital products (not projects), communicate effectively with other people, coach their own teams to improve and develop, and lead by example with the behaviors and actions you'd expect from someone so senior. - Constantly changing organisational structures and people (with a very high turnover) leading to high levels of stress and uncertainty about your own job. During my 3 year tenure at BT, I went through 3 separate re-orgs where my job was under threat. - Very little opportunity for training or mentorship. I paid for all of my own training whilst at BT as well as seeking out external mentorship off my own back with very little guidance or interest from my manager. You'll find that if any sort of training budget does exist it is negligible or just might not be available at all. During my time at BT, they removed training budgets every year apart from one. - Silo heaven! Almost every department across BT operates in a silo and vigorously protects their own kingdom for fear of being made redundant. This is especially prevalent between Digital and the BT business unit (who hold all the budgets) where disagreements, politics, and lack of progress is common. Even within Digital, you'll have 'CDO' and 'CIO' who operate across both the front end and back end (respectively) of the customer experience. This nonsensical way of setting up their organisation slows progress, adds complexity, and is just confusing for everyone.