Pros
-Good starting pay -Good benefits -Take in a range of graduates of different experiences
Cons
CGI promised a great place to kickstart a career in development, but from the beginning those promises quickly faded. As graduates, we were shuffled onto teams with little onboarding process, left to force ourselves into the teams we were assigned with no regard to our existing skills. Schemes put in place for us felt at odds with what we needed at the time and highlighted the disconnect between us as new developers and management. These felt more for the benefit of the upper management and contributed to an environment where we felt used. Whenever this was brought up with management we were shrugged off as teething issues, or some project difficulties that would soon pass. This has been a constant throughout my time at this company over multiple different projects. With the pandemic, junior developers have become stuck on projects we were shuffled to with little opportunities for lateral movement onto other areas. Some booted off existing ones for senior developers to take their place. Each concern placed has been met with apologetics and dismissals. Add to this the slow-pay progression and performance reviews being bulky at best it often feels hopeless. This has led to myself, and many of the others I joined with feeling forced into a corner, their careers stagnating with little opportunity for self-development.