Management
To be clear this review is based on CGI Group’s American Federal Subsidiary – CGI Federal.
CGI suffers from an incredibly homogeneous executive, and mid-level, management team. Most CGI leaders have been with the company for more than 20 years, having come to CGI via the acquisition of American Management Systems in 2004. This has resulted in a limited perspective on innovation, agility, and risk. There are members (the CGI term for ‘employees’) occupying Director, Vice President, and Senior Vice President roles that have never worked for another company and bring no diversity of experience to their Leadership approach. Moreover, because so many of CGI’s executive leaders have worked together for the last 20 years, there is very much an ‘us and them’ culture across the leadership ranks. CGI Federal leaders are incredibly cliquey and exclusive, resisting feedback on how to better the company’s offerings and overall strategy. Even worse, because the old guard is so prevalent and expansive, they cover for one another’s missteps and will scapegoat newcomers to ensure their tenure with company is never impacted.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Most CGI leaders fit a very typical model: white. CGI boasts around their inclusive hiring practices and DE&I initiatives, but it's incredibly challenging to find a member of a diversity group occupying an executive leadership position. The market I supported was entirely led by white men and white women, who weren’t interested at all in confronting or having conversations around diversity issues when they arose. Like most things at CGI Federal, their commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is largely a box checking activity, they make diversity hires to run the initiatives but that seems to be as far as the commitment goes.
Career Opportunities
CGI Federal does not bring a competitive portfolio of capabilities, so the type of work people are about to do is limited. In the Federal Contracting environment, they're known for their Momentum Financial and Acquisition Management ERP system. In all seriousness, Google 'Canceled CGI Contracts’ the results will make you curious about how this company is still in business. If you're interested in Financial Management, CGI may be a good place for you, but if you're not - there's nothing else to do here.
Mentorship
The primary skill one can cultivate at CGI is how to survive at CGI. In my experience, there really wasn’t anyone that could help coach a skill that would be marketable outside of CGI. CGI leaders lack any real type of skill or expertise. They’re lacking in soft skills as well, things like general leadership or management, emotional intelligence, relationship management – these really aren’t valued at CGI. Leaders have been heard discouraging members interested in pursuing advanced degrees like MBAs because ‘CGI doesn’t really care if you have that’. None of the leaders that I supported or engaged with while I was at CGI were interested in making me a better consultant, just a better CGI employee – and you don’t have to be talented or skilled to be the latter.
