Everything you need to KNOW. Moving to NYC, The Hotel99, and FDM Overall. - IT Consultant FDM Group Employee Review

1.0
6 Jan 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High Potential to get placed with a great company

Cons

Overall, living in NYC sucks (unless you are already here). Here is everything you need to know before coming here !!! Remember that the cost of living here is expensive. You are better off joining other companies like Revature that does the same thing instead. They pay you at least 10-15 grand more for living in places like NYC and Chicago. I've lived with people in large portion of my life. In NYC, forget about roommates unless you know them. Otherwise, it will be very hard to find any decent people in this place. I looked at around 15 apartments. Most the time, it will be an old and run down place with shady roommates. Oh, and most apartments will have like 3-5 people with 1 or 1.5 bathroom. There will most likely not be laundry, so you will have to walk to the nearest laundromat every week and spend 2-3 hours doing your laundry. And most importantly, with your budget, you won't find any neighborhood near your work that is decent. There will be homeless, mentally ill, and a lot of sketchy people. Your commute to work will most likely be 40 minutes minimum to 2 hours. Expect to spend a lot on transportation. Subways, buses, and on so forth. And remember, if you are young and have no one over here, you will be all alone with no one to help you with moving, driving in NYC, or anything. Hotel99 Pro: It is at a nice place right next to central park, hudson park, and columbia university. Overall, the location is safe and at hub of everything. Subway right next to the hotel so it is very convenient to go to work and everything. Cons: This hotel is complete BS. They will try to give you the worst room they have. The windows will be facing a brick wall. There will be some cockroaches. And if you are living with someone else ............... JUST DON'T. The room is very very small for 2 people. It will smell very bad if two guys are living there together. Imagine with all your belongings and someone else's belongings altogether in one small space. You will be sleeping 1.5 feet away from him. Yes, I measured. No kitchen and bathroom. It will be shared by the entire floor. There is 3 bathrooms and 1 small kitchen. Each bathroom can be used by 1 person at a time. I woke up at night time because of the odor trapped in the room at like 3 a.m to walk outside for some NYC fresh air. You can't open the window because bugs will just march right into your room. I had to open the hotel door that leads to the hallway to get some fresh air. Almost forgot, there is no closet. There is just a hanger that is 2 feet in length that is it. So you will be keeping 80% of your clothes in your bag. You will have to share the 4 drawers with your roommate. And no desk. So imagine hearing your roommate you just met that snores at night time, smell of shoes worn all day from 2 guys, no closet, bathroom shared by like 30 people, small kitchen (very small mini fridge that sometimes don't work) so you will have a terrible diet of eating fast food, or some sort of unhealthy food, and you don't know anyone in NYC, you have to find somewhere to live in 2 months, you get payed $15 an hour in like the most expensive city in the world, ................. As a person that lived in a lot of terrible conditions ( I really mean it), living in that hotel with 1 other person is just the worst experience. If you get the hotel by yourself though, it can be manageable though I did ask them for you already, and they won't budge. Lastly, if you are truly desperate, then you can work it out. However, expect everything I said above. Most people in FDM are out of college, so young in their 20s. If you are having hard time finding a job, I'd suggest go to the library everyday and study on your interviewing skills and learn your profession. I promise you everything is there online. FDM Group They are like all other companies. They will try to keep give you bare minimum, and get most out of you. Apply to other companies like FDM that pay you more !!! It is exactly the same process. The $1000 they pay you upfront and $2000 Reimbursement is really nothing at all. You will most likely not be using the $2000 because they have strict rules to how you can use it. The HR is there to protect the COMPANY from YOU. Not the other way around. You can learn valuable skills here, but you can also learn them yourself if you just put the work into it. If you are moving here, they won't help you out with anything. DO NOT use public transportation coming here. Use UBER>>> Make them pay for it. Let them know you have TOO much baggage to carry through like 3-5 transportation systems. Otherwise, if you are desperate and in need 1) Try to get your own hotel room. Probably won't happen. Make up some excuse. You have really bad BO, snore loud, and other stuff maybe. 2) Try to find work somewhere else besides NYC, NJ, California, and Chicago. 3) Get your OWN apartment. I can go on about this all day, but really............ get your own place I promise it will be worth it. 4) Study hard!!! It really isn't hard. You just need to completely focus. 5) Look nice 6) Be professional at all times 7) Keep negative things to yourself. 8) Engage with your account manager and other people in charge.

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Cons

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1.0
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CEO approval
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Pros

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Cons

They will promise you opportunities that don't exist. The company they contract you to will promise you work that you will not be assigned. I was a Java Consultant with a masters degree in Math and certificate in full stack and I was shoved into a manual testing position that required zero coding and constantly dangled automation in front of my face. When I was asked to look at Selenium, I studied it in some of the copious amounts of downtime i had and was reprimanded during the next meeting for 'wasting company time'. I moved from Texas to New Jersey for my first position. After contracts with the company were terminated, I was pulled off my assignment only to be abruptly fired for "lack of geoflexibility" despite willingness to move to several places they do business including NYC and even Denver. There is no accountability from them as the only response they give is "the decision is final". There is no way to appeal a blatant lie. Their company has no integrity and side with business majors over people that know how chemicals and physics and electrical components work just seem like bad life decisions. They will say you can reapply but they won't hire you. They'd full of it at every angle.

5
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