First Derivatives Employee Reviews about "expenses package"

Pros

- Travel opportunities - Generous expenses package - Meet similar people

Cons

- Not much opportunities for advancement - When contracted to certain places you can meet some degree of hostility from those who are not contracted - Gossipy place to work - High turnover

Pros

Great opportunities to travel globally as a young professional, wholly at the companies convenience Generous expenses package Work with some very well renowned clients

Cons

HR treats employees like children No career path and employees are scolded for even hinting at this All non-kdb roles are basically jobs banks would not hire people permanently to do You are forced to travel on the weekends and often at unsociable hours in order to save the company money No overtime is offered or bonuses given but working beyond your contracted hours is expected E-mails to HR or management are often not replied to and when it does eventually occur it is terse and scolding. While travel opportunities are fantastic, the company will not assist employees in any way to suggest their destinations. Even asking about roles in a particular location will also lead to a harsh reply from HR.

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

- Opportunity for grads to get experience in finance - FD have a lot of big named clients (Morgan Stanley, RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Bank of America to name a few). - Possibility of travel - FD have clients in a lot of major cities (London, New York, Singapore, Boston, Toronto, Dublin, Hong Kong, Tokyo etc). - Good expenses package - They pay for all accommodation and travel while on-site.

Cons

- Highly unprofessional management - Could be here all day with this one. - Zero say over where you go or what job you'll be doing - you are seen as a resource to make them money and nothing else. It is a complete lucky dip as to whether you end up on a good or terrible project. - Cattle mart - They take on such a huge amount of graduates each month that it can feel like a cattle mart at times. - High turnover rate - The majority of experienced employees leave after 3/4 years when they become too expensive for their business model. - Possibility of being stuck in Newry with no expense benefits.

Pros

Expenses package is generous for those who are outside of newry. Young workforce of very friendly people, lots of opportunities to socialise. Can get big name clients on your CV

Cons

The below review that blames the entitled next generation is typical FD management. Instead of realising that they have a employee satisfaction crisis they will blame the employees for being ungrateful and refuse to accept any wrongdoing. They do not want to hear any feedback unless it is glowing. Other top tier companies will all have a strong graduate presence from this "entitled generation" especially other consultancy firms. So why does FD have the highest staff turnover and the most employee complaints. Why when they have a "world class" graduate programme why do such a small percentage go on to complete it. Why when the expenses package is so good do so many leave for lower paying jobs, surely these are alarms bells. Perhaps they should realise their whole workforce aren't moaners and are perhaps unhappy with the continual lies told to them from recruitment through to deployment. Lots of young highly qualified people are doing admin. They will have a carrot dangled in front of them of better roles ahead but most will never get to discover these roles. I would be interested to know how many financial engineers are in a role that even contains a single element that could be classified as financial engineering. FD will do anything to make money and unfortunely the careers of the employees are secondary to a few extra pounds in the bank.

Pros

Provides a good opportunity for new grads to gain exposure to capital markets and to work globally. Accommodation and expenses package is generous and allows for easy transition to new cities.

Cons

Experience gained is very much luck of the draw and very little consideration is given to personal preference. Often grads are lured in with empty promises of global travel and in reality only make it as far as Belfast or Dublin. The HR and sales teams in head office view employees as numbers not people. As long as you're making them money, they don't care how unhappy you are in your current role or location.

Pros

Good expenses package in Dublin.

Cons

Poor Roles. Not a finance company at all.