First Derivatives Employee Reviews about "client site"
Updated 4 Nov 2020
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Full-time, Part-time
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Location
- Worldwide
- Ireland - All Cities
- - Dublin
- - Dublin Area
- - Munster
- - Cork Area
- United Kingdom - All Cities
- - Northern Ireland
- - Belfast, UK Area
- - England
- - London, UK Area
- - Scotland
- - Glasgow, UK Area
- Australia - All Cities
- - New South Wales
- - Sydney, Australia Area
- Canada - All Cities
- - Ontario
- - Toronto, ON, Canada Area
- Hong Kong - All Cities
- - Yung Shue Wan, Hong Kong Area
- India - All Cities
- - Telangana
- - Hyderabad, India Area
- Qatar - All Cities
- - Ad Dawhah
- - Doha, Qatar Area
- Singapore - All Cities
- - Singapore, Singapore Area
- South Africa - All Cities
- - Gauteng
- - Johannesburg, South Africa Area
- United States - All Cities
- - Maine
- - Newry, ME
- - Massachusetts
- - Boston, MA, US Area
- - New York State
- - New York City, NY, US Area
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Pros
"Reasonable expenses package when out on project" (in 67 reviews)
"Opportunity to travel around the world" (in 63 reviews)
Cons
"Can spend a lot of time in Newry if unlucky with projects" (in 54 reviews)
"When you are in client site you almost forget that you work for FD" (in 31 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.
Reviews about "client site"
Return to all Reviews- Helpful (1)
"Good Starter Company"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at First Derivatives full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Opportunity to work for a big FinTech company anywhere across the globe. Good benefits package - accomodation, expenses, healthcare
Cons
Lack of control over your own career - you could get pulled from client site at any point in time to be put on another project in potentially another country and doing an entirely different role. No transparency in annual review process - HR hadn't a clue what role I was even doing
"Great starter company"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at First Derivatives full-time for more than 3 years
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
Continue reading- Helpful (9)
"GLORIFIED AGENCY - AVOID IF EXPERIENCED"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at First Derivatives full-time for more than a year
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!
Continue reading - Helpful (3)
"Caveat Emptor"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
I have been working at First Derivatives full-time for more than 5 years
Pros
Travel opportunities Responsibility when on client site
Cons
HR a nightmare to deal with Uncertainty
Continue reading - Helpful (6)
"Has potential - not long term"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI worked at First Derivatives full-time
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
Continue reading - Helpful (2)
"Decent opportunities, poor communication and organisation"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at First Derivatives
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.
Continue reading - Helpful (3)
"Be Prepared for Disappointment"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendApproves of CEOI worked at First Derivatives full-time for more than a year
Pros
Meet loads of new colleagues/ friends Traveling (if your contracted to New York, Sydney etc,) Expenses while on client project
Cons
Marketing team have used glitter and unicorns to paint picture of exotic work life - shambles in reality. Little to no management - after initial welcome to the team and workshops training of "intensive" programme that's it, left to own devices. (Get used to using CTRL +F) Yes, you are required to use your own initiative to learn which is great, but don't expect to come into contact with any manager or HR member unless being deployed. Workshops mainly taught by other non experienced employees. Assigned a mentor but you will never meet this person expected to guide you or answer concerns. Be prepared to drop and rearrange your life in the space of a weekend, no heads up or preparation time, you get your project, be expected to move within a day or two. Projects at times can be interesting if you're lucky, but be prepared to complete mediocre tasks which have to stretch to an 8 hour day, moving files or copying and pasting. While on the 'bench' - not on client site - be mentally prepared to keep yourself busy 9-6, you could be benched for months at a time. While on client site, you forget you work for FD - No room for career progression. HR do not care about employee wellbeing! More interested in office gossip. Honestly, do your research and know exactly what you want out of your career, do not fall for the pipe dream FD sell.
Continue reading - COVID-19Helpful (1)
Pros
Good package when on client site
Cons
Highly disorganised Package is pathetic while WFH through covid No ability to plan your life beyond the end of the week
- Helpful (6)
"Projects are a gamble"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNegative OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at First Derivatives full-time for more than a year
Pros
Great package - the package really is excellent once you are on client site, huge tax savings too. Easy travel - you can move city often and FD will arrange your flights, visas, landlords, etc all on your behalf. Colleagues/networking - the company is young and social (most employees are only 1-3 years our of uni) and you meet a lot of employees at prestigious clients.
Cons
Travel opportunities are mis-sold - the fact is you could spent most or even all your time in Newry where your compensation is cut by about half. Also for UK contracts in Financial Engineering about 90% of the work is in Newry/Belfast/Dublin/London. Poor support - after month 1 you are essentially left on your own with no manager, a mentor who you wont see (and only a couple years more experienced than you), and essentially no connection with FD. Poor career prospects - a lot of the projects require low skill and offer worthless experience (e.g. data labelling) and FD doesnt really have any internal ladder to climb.
Continue reading - Helpful (9)
"Avoid or Just Enjoy"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI worked at First Derivatives full-time for more than 5 years
Pros
This is an amazing place for easy money, you did not even need a degree to work for FD. There are plenty of people in that company with no degrees but with Newry DNA which is more than enough. The accomodation can be amazing special when you do not care if the lads in the house/apartment are having a second life as teenagers Expenses,this is a jackpot, you can claim whatever you want , and you will get paid as long as you respect of course the companys rules. There are rumours people claiming toilet paper every week... Friendly staff, i have not enjoyed more drinking with senior management, where they share all the gossips Those lads after few pints they are like an open book Senior Management, the guys do not bother as long as you are on client site and you make money with no noise. Do not ask for better roles etc, this is FD not f...g Goldman Sachs, there are no better roles
Cons
Future candiates, please read carefully. THERE IS NO CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN FD. HR, well except some friendly ladies in that department, the rest of the team are from newry and very good friends with the previous CEO who recently passed away. There is no professionalism and there is no attitude to change Locations, 90% of the roles are based in the exotic island of Ireland and in the other exotic and sunny place of London. If you are lucky you might go to US canada etc Accomodation, you can easily be given an apartment where the noise from the toilet can wake up dead people, or you can have an amazing house in Ballsbridge , again it is all luck , unless you have Newry DNA
Continue reading
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