NTT DATA reviews

3.7

75% would recommend to a friend

(19,423 total reviews)
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Abhijit Dubey

79% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

NTT DATA has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 19,423 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The NTT DATA employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
1.0
Jul 31, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only positive about NTT DATA UK is that the location of its offices in Central London.

Cons

There are quite a few negatives about working for NTT DATA UK as detailed below: 1) Cronyism: The defining characteristic of NTT DATA UK is its rampant cronyism and favoritism. You can choose to become a part of the "inner circle" or clique of influential people that are empowered by the very top management of the organisation. Once you become a crony and be a part of the inner circle, then you can expect promotions every year despite the level of your (in)competence. Needless to say, when incompetence is promoted, competence moves away. Many of the old timers at this place appear to live in a make-believe bubble where they think they are part of a great team that is changing the business world or doing some brilliant, path-breaking work. The reality of it is something else(as described below). Anyone considering NTT DATA UK must evaluate this aspect as the favoritism at this place can have serious repercussions on your career path. 2) Bodyshopping, not Consulting: NTT DATA UK tries to sell itself as a Consulting firm, however, almost all the projects here are IT Services or pure bodyshopping. This is evident by the fact that most of the lower grade "consultants" would be in IT project management. It was indeed strange to read that the CEO of this firm once spoke in an interview that he had never worked in IT, when the entire business is pure IT Services and body shopping. NTT DATA UK tries hard to leverage the NTT brand and its Japanese roots, along with the achievement of its sister companies, only to fall short in landing any worthwhile consulting projects. Anyone who wants to join this firm must be able to filter out the noise of consulting that will be sold to you, and be prepared to work on IT projects. 3) Lack of competence in management: Owing to the fact that they tend to live in bubble and have only ever worked in IT projects, the middle and upper management possess a level of competence that does not match with the top tier consulting firms of the world. It was a shame to see some really talented youngsters being wasted away on body shopping projects. There is a serious lack of thought leadership because most of the published thought pieces are derivatives of the work from other consulting firms or sister concerns. There is a lack of opportunity to learn from senior management since they can only teach from the limited pool of knowledge or skill that they possess. Anyone considering to join NTT DATA UK must remember that you learn better when you are not the smartest person in the room. 4) Sheer Toxicity: Although there are many social events to attend, there is a dearth of genuine and healthy camaraderie at NTT DATA UK. There is a persistent feeling of being under scrutiny all the time if you do not belong to the inner circle. The firm endeavors to present an exciting brand to the outer world by encouraging and coaxing employees to write glowing reviews on social media, especially Glassdoor and LinkedIn. As someone has written in an earlier review, I would strongly advise to read the positive reviews with a massive pinch of salt.

1.0
Jul 28, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Lovely offices * Jars of chocolates, fresh fruit and treats left lying around every day * Entry pay seems high * High focus on socials * Superficially 'diverse' but only in the junior roles, which is where you will stay forever

Cons

Work - if you are an IT/Digital, Telco specialist and have no interest in real business transformation then this is the place for you! They will sell it to you hard as a proper consultancy but actual, genuine business consultancy assignments are as rare as rainbow unicorn eggs, in other words they don't exist. They will tell you how they can compete with the big boys but this is simply a lie, it is all IT/Digital. There is nothing wrong with this but only join if your area of expertise is technical and telco. The bench - recently this has started to be managed in a draconian way where consultants are forbidden from seeking consulting leads and generating their own work. Anyone who has worked in any other consultancy will know that this is a bizarre and frankly cretinous way of operating. The only reason this could be happening is to maintain a list of those who could be culled when the time comes because they can be identified as idle/useless. There are legendary tales of people being left on the bench for up to a year through no fault of their own. Promotion - This is and it has been said before 'an old boys club'. It was set up by a group of Telco friends who only initiate other Telco, white, male clones into the leadership team. There may be one or two ethnics in senior positions but diversity is just wear a BLM t-shirt day or come to an 'exciting' curry evening and that's it. The composition of the leadership team and who gets promoted tells its own story - the facts speak for themselves. Leadership - there isn't any, the leaders are mostly extremely poor with the best ones having left . Any successes gained over the last few years was comprehensively destroyed by a properly daft agile re-organisation which delivered zilch. A great example of how having a Harvard business qualification doesn't mean you can deliver anything. Last year they received 10s of millions of pounds in investment from their Japanese parent company which is basically the only thing that is propping it up. Consulting - the small consulting team is is led as though everyone was back in their 6th form with jolly initiatives that are old fashioned and just useless and pointless in generating any extra work and worst still in training junior consultants on anything useful. Culture - you will have to do some serious smoozing to get into the 'in crowd' which will at least guarantee the best projects and promotions for doing nothing particularly spectacular. Rewards are based on favouritism and if your face fits and if you are prepared to suck up to the disproportionately large number of incompetent directors and leaders.

1.0
Jul 27, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great junior staff, made some good friends outside of work. London location for offices is good.

Cons

Beware - NTT DATA UK emails staff to post Glassdoor reviews. The London office and Business Consulting is a place where it is all about whether you suck up to the right group of people and do not question the lack of business consulting - it is as other reviewers have said, a bodyshop. If you are after low-end consulting like CRM implementation or change requests etc then you may like the place if you come and can suck up to the right people. During your interviews ask the following questions before you join: - Who do you compete against in the market? (they will try and say Deloitte or even Mckinsey! - very simple to to check, ask them them what consultants and directors are billed to clients at...then ask Deloitte and you'll see what low-end is) - What projects will I be staffed on? (again they will try and give you some 'strategy' or 'management' consulting nonsense...ask how many of these happen, what the size/value of these projects are relative to the overall business...you will most likely be put into a telco project doing low end change requests or IT stuff) - Who leads the business consulting practice and Impact? (look them up on linkedin and determine if you rate their career history etc)

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NTT DATA Response
6y
Indeed I do ask our employees to leave reviews. However I would never influence or direct the content of their reviews in any way. The vast majority of our team here at NTT DATA love working here and are more than happy to share their views on Glassdoor. Some reviews are very positive, some average and also some that show us we still have work to do. All reviews are welcome but I would always ask that you share your views with your line manager or HR, that way we can all work towards improving everything we do.
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