First Derivatives Employee Reviews about "client site"

Pros

The only pro that comes to mind is the potential to add tier 1 banks onto your CV, this is ultimately pot luck however as you have no say in what companies you work for or what you end up doing.

Cons

HR - Where to begin with this one, could be here all day. I've been with the firm for two years and have had one conversation with HR about my progress at the one year point. Weekly reports are a joke, no one reads them. I raised many issues with my project and week after week they are ignored, don't bother filling them in. The CMTP programme that is so highly advertised by FD is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, people with zero financial experience can breeze through the entire course in about two weeks as you're given a cheat sheet on the first day by lads already in the company. HR know they exist but pat you on the back for getting them done and lick their lips because they can sell you to clients because of your newly found control F skills. The opportunity to travel is also a charade, you've entered a lottery by signing on and fingers crossed you get that 1 great project. For anyone else like myself you'll get shipped out to do tasks banks couldn't be bothered getting their permanent employees to do in Belfast or Dublin. My experience has consisted of copying and pasting files and filling out excel sheets for the grand majority of my two years. I graduated with a finance degree and have not had to use anything I've learned at all during my time at Uni, a monkey could do my job. This whole job really is luck of the draw and it doesn't matter what your degree is, what experience you have. They'll send you anywhere they can to start earning the £££££ and wash their hands of you once you're on client site. If you kick up a stink, scream loud enough and prove to be that much of a nuisance to HR they'll offer better roles ,I've seen it happen but good luck. Theres a 3 month notice period if you want to leave which is 3x longer than any other firm and also a 5 grand penalty or 2.5 grand penalty if you want to leave within your first or second year in the grad programme respectively. The business model here is simple, advertise highly decorated grad students to employers at a cheap rate, pay them buttons and spit them out after the two years. The employee turnover is so high for a reason, there is no opportunity for growth past your two years. Use FD as a stepping stone if you must but don't overstay your welcome if you have any crumb of ambition.

Pros

Good grad package with an opportunity to work with an excellent portfolio of clients International experience Fast growing company

Cons

Lack of support on client site due to company growth

Pros

Can't think of any, unless you like to be left completely to your own devices with no intereaction.

Cons

Where to start! This is not a consulting firm but rather an agency/recruitment firm. FD dump you into the first project they can find, regardless if the project suits your skills. From there on out expect minimal to no interaction from FD. You're essentially any other contractor in the client site now. Good luck if you think you have any say on what project you will go onto next! Absolutely no structure or thought given to your self-development or progression. Which makes it hilarious at the end of year HR meeting when this is asked of you. Very one sided to expect everything from the employee when the employer is not willing to make any effort to begin with. Sick to think of the daily rate (€450) they earn from each consultant being based on client site while paying out in pennies a fraction of this to us!

Pros

Travel opportunities Responsibility when on client site

Cons

HR a nightmare to deal with Uncertainty

Pros

Young workforce Good benefits (unless you are in Newry)

Cons

Managers will literally lie to you about almost everything. I was misled about client site, end of project timelines (I know many projects get extended but mine was extended 5 times), what the work entailed, no training provided and we were also lied to about bonus's

Pros

The technology owned by this company is fun to work with, and you get the opportunity to work with global banks and financial institutions. The expenses package when on client site is pretty decent. Accommodation, food and transport are covered (within reason). You get the opportunity to travel if you're interested (tho you get 0 say in where you are sent to).

Cons

Extremely poor communication with management. You will be left in the dark about what projects you'll be working on. Emails will go a long time without being answered, you may be sitting doing nothing for weeks while the project is delayed. This is not fun. The company has grown quickly but has not increased the size of it's HR department proportionally to the number of consultants. Don't expect any good communication. Expect to hear about things last minute.

Pros

Opportunities to work on exciting projects. Training and development (self-led for the most part)

Cons

If you work in Newry the compensation isn’t adequate. If you work on client site, the expenses package is being replaced by ridiculously low compensation. Low or no support from HQ. HR are only concerned with the company and not employee wellbeing.

Pros

The package is ridiculously good if you manage to consistently be on client site, especially for one of your first jobs out of college (unfortunately the firm is transitioning out of this model at the moment so that probably won't be on offer anymore). Great company to start with (most of the time) some of the projects are really terrible but thankfully I haven't had that experience.

Cons

Management have a really annoying habit of promising you locations or even new clients or challenges but in my experience they are just trying to shut you up so that you will stay with the same client for long term engagement. If you stay at FD long enough you may feel pigeon holed into a really niche area within Capital Markets. It's tough to break out of this so make sure that it is what you want if you are doing it. If you want a role as a Software Engineer be aware that you may have to do a couple of starter projects first before they'll trust you as a Dev. The earlier projects are all based on Application Support or Testing. So whilst your title might be Software Engineer you are still technically QA or support. In my experience it can be hard to break out of this once you are in it so make sure you voice your concerns and don't expect that if they ask you to sit tight for a few months that they will actually move you into a role that you desire. The training isn't great, so you'll rely on other team members to get going. You will constantly be asked to train new team members as well as the turnover of staff is so high. It's a real roulette with new members as well, they can be either really good or quite terrible.