Avoid this company, your future is determined by who your client is and whether your face fits with the leadership team
Pros
Can work beside very knowledgable people who are generally in the company for a long time. I believe CGI as a whole might be a good company, perhaps the head office in Canada is good.
Cons
Make no mistake you are nothing more than an expendable resource in this company, no matter what the head office states and where nepotism is rife. You work %100 on client site, which you need to ensure is factored into your salary negotiations for travel costs. CGI in the UK pays %20 below market rate for your job title but the calculations on market rate are CGI based and are generally well below the real market to start with. Everything this company does is on the cheap, there is no class or professionalism. The company on boarding should give you an insight into how the company works. People are given a laptop (new or old), mobile phone and told to arrive in the client site to start working with a 1-hour induction and nothing in terms of a company orientation. HR Intranet site has leaving CGI as its first hyperlink at the top of the page, speaks volumes about the company. You can be doing multiple jobs which you were not interviewed for but somehow, you're expected to do, i.e. bid manager, business analysis, test manager, etc. People with qualifications are not valued any more than modern apprentices (MA), with MA’s, unfairly sometimes taking up the slack of a client programme due to a CYA approach by programme leadership. MA’s and highly qualified staff are routinely ridiculed in conference calls and in front of clients leading to a very high turnover of staff. Company wide staff turnover is around %17 per year (2018), used to be %23! The programme I was on had an estimated %50 turnover of resources, this led to issues with the client and projects being delayed. This also leads to the lack of a company ethos where people who leave or retire from CGI don’t get so much of a farewell card, but instead are reminded of where to leave their laptop and ID badge when they leave, no matter how long they have been with CGI UK. The client programmes have been written up to guarantee a contract win which leads to major issues in delivery when the detail comes into play. This seems to be the approach used in the Logica days which unfortunately still resonates within CGI UK. Line management is at director level who have their own job as well as managing 10 – 60+ staff members. This leads to a lack of development with your line manager who typically doesn’t really care what you are doing except when it comes to end of year reviews. You can expect multiple line managers over a short space of time and can have a line manager who is not on the same programme which results in the lack of career development and empathy. CGI UK unfortunately has numerous longer-term leadership people who float from one client to the next, they talk a good game and make commitments to clients and then move on to the next client before delivery, therefore not having to deal with the consequences of their commitments. These people make up the large majority of director and VP’s in the company who ensure their friends are promoted or employed as contractors, therefore providing them with back up if anyone raises a grievance, for ANY number of reasons. Company HR representatives are contractors brought in for a specific purpose, normally this includes managing people out the door if their face doesn’t fit, or they raise a grievance as they are seen as a trouble maker. Believe me when I say CGI process for people being managed out the door is freighting efficient and is a real credit for the brutality in which innocent people can disappear from the company in a very short space of time for nothing more than raising a grievance about unprofessional behaviour.