Applicants beware!! - Trainee Test Analyst Edge Testing Solutions Employee Review

A very very poor company to work for. Basically echo the views of similar poor reviews of this company. Especially as a “trainee”, the pay is minimal at £17500. Trainees can be experienced professionals familiar to office/work environment or school leavers. No matter how much work or progress or money you make the company, you will receive the minimal standard 6 monthly pay rise of £500. They will string you along and tell you that if you provide evidence you will be “fast tracked”. This is blatantly untrue and the management will never deviate from this standard pay scale. Once you have signed up as a trainee you are contractually obligated to pay back £3500 if you leave the company within the first 6 months of employment. If you leave between 6 months and 12 months; you pay back £700. It is claimed that the cost of the training however in my experience I received no training as a trainee. They claim to be a very people orientated company which was the main appeal to me about the company. Unfortunately you realise very quickly you are a cheap resource who’s only job is to get as many billable days in for the company as possible. After (minimum) 3-6 months for trainees with no experience in the industry prior to working with Edge, you are then advertised to clients as an experienced software tester unbeknownst to the client. Career advancement is not applicable. If you feel you have achieved all you can on a particular client site or project your request to further your skills elsewhere is ignored. The only time any senior employee will get in touch with you is when you haven’t sent in your timesheet or when you hand in your notice. When you are on client site and are asked to attend management meetings or mandatory Quarterly meetings, these are on your own time. This is not the case with other vendors but does seem like Edge will agree to client demands over wishes or well being of employees. As a permanent member of staff you will not be paid if you are sick for between 1-3 days. More than 3 days you will be paid statutory sick pay. This is not disclosed at the interview stage. You get all the drawbacks of contracting with none of the benefits. Pension is also extremely poor. I can only speak of my own experience with this company and could never in good faith recommend that you work directly for this company. The pretence of an employee friendly work place when on client site and the untruths you are told regarding low employee turnover are particularly disappointing. I feel it is important for anyone applying to work for this company to be aware what employees of the company have experienced.