No amount of money is worth it here - Software Engineer Sogeti Employee Review

My friend referred me to the company a few months after he started there. We were both in even worse situations before Sogeti so we thought, why not give it a try. And the way he described it to me was, your "standard [scummy] consulting company." That is red flag #1. After I got hired on, I then found out how misleading the benefits were. The 401k has an incredibly high match rate but also doesn't vest until you have been with the company for 3 years! Their education/tuition reimbursement keeps you on the hook for an entire year. Any education purchase you make (certification, course, etc) will be charged back to you unless you stay for an entire year following the date of the purchase. The company's attrition rate is so high, they try to shackle you with these golden handcuffs of the 401k and education reimbursement so they can keep profiting off you. Additionally, the bonus system is completely asinine. At the lower levels, you can get a bonus if your utilization (hours billed to client) is above 85%. But wait, they only give a bonus to the first 150 people above 85% AND the pool of people is all employees at the above levels across the entire United States, which is approximately 25,000 employees. When I asked a high-level manager what would happen if more than 150 people met the requirement, his exact words to me were, "We still haven't worked out the details to that yet." This should be red flag #2. Third, you have no shot of getting a meaningful raise by being a good employee. A few months before I left, the high-level manager announced that raises for promotions will be between 1%-3%. Meanwhile, their criteria for a promotion is that you should not only be doing your job, you should also be doing the job of the promotion you want and show that you can handle that for approximately a year before getting the promotion. So, basically have double the responsibility for a measly 1-3% salary increase. And for you software people reading this, one of the metrics for advancing to the next level is to "sell" to the client you are working for. You will have little to no chance of being able to do this as you are in a scrum development team that doesn't talk to the business folks from the client who are "buying." Not to mention the fact that Sogeti has salespeople where all the sales talk traffics through them. Sogeti rewards mediocrity and blind loyalty, not skill and drive, while their promotion criteria are tailored to business/salespeople. Software employees are second-class employees to Sogeti. Red flag #3. On the team I joined, I found out that Sogeti branded the team as a unit that had worked together for years and got along well. The truth is that none of the people on the team had worked together prior to that. The more senior members all bickered with each other like children while the junior developers carried the application forward. There were constant arguments and it was mentally exhausting being in the same room as these people having to listen to the drama. The junior developers got together and went to upper management and told them what was going on. There were problems with all the senior members, however, we pointed out the one who was at the source of it all, the one who was stirring the pot. We come to find out that the manager of all the teams was hiding the problems from upper management. Once that got out, we finally saw some change in personnel. However, the one who we all said was pulling the strings to cause the conflict was kept on the team. Additionally, upper management claimed changing too many people out would make the client unhappy. The 3 people that were removed were people who actually contribute to the team and drive business value. The one who gets to stay doesn't do any development work, doesn't contribute to the team in any way, and doesn't bring value to the client. That just doesn't make sense. Others before me left seeing how ineffective and self-preserving Sogeti was. Only 2 of the original 8 team members stayed on the team past 1.5 years. Sogeti just lies to their clients to protect their own image and don't care about their own personnel. Red flag #4. Do yourself a favor and never give this company a second thought. The benefits they tout are nothing but devices to try to keep you shackled below market value and make you second guess yourself from leaving to find a better company (i.e. "If I just deal with the BS for 2 more years..."). The 401k isn't worth it, the education expenses aren't worth it, no amount of money is worth this company. You will never get a meaningful raise unless you threaten to quit. And if you're at the point of threatening to quit, will you really be happy staying any longer?