Well well well, this is where the list is too long to mention, some of the key highlights:
1. Exec Level management is too busy in playing politics to keep their job; no one cares about the business; no new major contract won for the last 5 years has to be some sort of record!
2. Existing contracts are ending or at times ending per-maturely. Yes, it is not unusual at CGI/Logica that a client is so unhappy about the quality of service that they would pay early termination fee to go to a different provider.
3. The company runs extremely low on staff; so unfortunately, whoever works, has to work 150% in order to have any sort of self respect for the deliverable that they produce.
4. Most of the Architects (except a few) are paid extremely highly; but have a very high ego; which results in friction when they visit clients, and it is not unusual for clients to tell CGI not to send a particular person to meet them ever again.
5. Lying is openly promoted by Exec Management, and the term used is MSU and I quote "Make Stuff Up! and worry about the delivery later".
6. People who can lie and deceive are kept and promoted; people who are honest and want to do a good job are usually side lined.
7. Once a person resigns, they are treated like a 3rd class citizen; not sure why the Exec team doesn't understand that they can be you client tomorrow! Especially when a President, Metro Lead or Director level person leaves.
8. Lately the mantra has been, if you are not liked by the metro lead, there is only one way for you. That is the way out and luckily, people end up getting jobs at better companies like BMC, Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle etc.
9. HR is so useless that I am not sure any of the HR team actually knows that HR means Human Resources not Harassing Resources. The best thing about HR is that the exit interview is optional, in-fact, if someone says they want to do an exit interview, usually the HR will frown and cry!
10. Last but not the least, the internal IT department is worse and poorer than a government school IT department. They run so short on Laptops that they would courier a used Laptop interstate, to give it to a new joiner. If your laptop is broken; well you can just sit around and do nothing, if you are not asked to take annual leave for that day. Company phones are the state of the art android 2.0, yes 2.0 which was launched like in 2010. And the absolute best part is the companies state of the art Video Conferencing solution, built and designed in 1985, and not upgraded since! In my almost 5 years at CGI, I cannot recall a single time, when the all staff meeting which is usually run via Video conferencing, when the video conferencing system did not have issue. I mean; its beyond belief and shame for an IT Consultancy Company to have such a wonderful system.
11. Oh sorry and I forgot to mention; at CGI people don't win contracts, suits and ties do. So everyone has to wear a Suit and Tie all 5 days of the week at the world famous office of Box Hill (which is like a short 40 minutes train ride from the CBD). So no matter what your role is, what your clients dress code is; WE ARE CGI AND WE WILL WEAR A TIE NO MATTER HOW STUPID WE LOOK.
I hope you have enjoyed my factual and truthful rant. Well I do hope if you end up joining this company that you have a better time than what I or a lot of my friends had there.
