FDM Group reviews

3.1

53% would recommend to a friend

(3,948 total reviews)
avatar

Rod Flavell

55% approve of CEO

34% positive business outlook

FDM Group has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 3,948 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The FDM Group employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Jan 10, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- You get to leave early on Fridays - Creating friendship with fellow trainees and trainers - Stepping stone for getting into a fortune 500 company (The Only benefit) - Opportunity to expand professional network

Cons

I really would advise you against this, most 5 star reviews are from trainees who became trainers and internal staff. even the luckies consultants at the end of the day aren't happy with how they got treated, eventhough they got the opportunity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Two-year commitment - Start out at $12/hr. or $15/hr. if you are in New York because the minimum wage is $15 - They give you a two weeks option to opt out but during that time they treat you well they give you longer breaks, you basically didnt need to use your own personal unpaid time. - After finishing the foundation courses, the pressure is unbareable. you have different courses to train for which usually takes a couple of weeks to learn but they do that in 3days and give you a huge assignment for the next two days of the week. they are always cutting days of training because there main goal is to send you out to a client. - You need to commit at least 20/25 hrs. of your own unpaid time to go over what you learned - I can see this being a pro but for me it’s a con. you have a zoom and Microsoft teams meeting depending on the trainer and spend around 9hrs of your day doing that. which sucked because some trainer did whatever they wanted. started class at 9:30 and finished at 6:00. you get 1-hour of unpaid lunch and two paid 15 minute breaks at 11 and 3. Just like that your day is over. - After the foundation classes which includes unix and sql with a project at the end. shi* gets real. three days of web application and boom its create your own website from scratch. - Very Fast Paced, unless you are really knowledgeable in Java, you are going to struggle to follow fellow trainers. Every trainer is different some are good and some are bad. I had one trainer who went over things in two days and asked the trainees if we had questions? most of the class doesn’t even understand the chapter enough to ask a questions. He then threw a project at us and said you have three days figure it out. if you fail a project they tell you to fix it on your own time. - They have their own way of shaping you into becoming what they want you to sound. They have a thing they call the S.T.A.R method, situation, task, action and result. They would ask you tell me about a project you worked? tell me about a difficult time while working with a group setting? It ends up being a scripted version of you they want to hear. - if you fail Quality gate three times, they let you go without any fees. - Academy Managers treat you like a piece of meat. Their salary depends on you finding a contract, after that it’s hard to get in touch with them. - No control on placement (Which means you can be thrown anywhere). - if you don’t find a job after training, you will be tasked in doing some development project for $12/hr. until you get placed. - If you are lucky enough to find a job you want when training is done you get paid $44.5K (around $32,000 salary and + $38 a daily bonus for working that day). so if you are sick you aren’t going to get that daily bonus. They charge the client 3/4 times more than they pay you. - if you don’t pass your interview with a client a couple of times they let you go and threaten to sue you for $30,000 for the training they provided. - The benefits are not worth it; you will be paying out of pocket for most medical expenses.

4.0
Feb 19, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They have connections in the industry that will lead you to opportunities. If you're a competent CS Major/techie that couldn't get positions because of your experience, this company is a great choice. They provide paid training and it's a great opportunity to brush up on technical skills that may have gotten rusty. They offer benefits, paid time off, and 401k matching. You are given an opportunity to travel depending on which client selects you and they do include a relocation package. You generally only work 40 hours. They value diversity and inclusion.

Cons

You're placed on a strict 2 year contract and the two years don't start until you are placed with your employer. Your employer can't buy out your contract. The pay is a bit low for the two years and you'll get paid the same regardless of where you're hired. You may not like your team or employer and you have no real say in the matter if you get chosen as a candidate. If you struggle in the course work it's difficult to get additional help. Overtime is discouraged once placed with a client, you only work up to 40 hours a week and it can become awkward planning deadlines.

1.0
May 17, 2018

Good way to get your foot into IT careers, when it works

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great teachers, great way to get into the IT sector, good healthcare and benefits

Cons

About the training process, if you are from outside NY or Washington D.C., and cant really do a good commute, you'll be put in a hotel. FDM pays for the hotel, and you pay the taxes. I wasn't really ever sure how this works, but it ends up the FDM pays your hotel like they're paying you. So while you're only making 13.50 an hour, your being taxed a good 30% of your take home pay and the hotel costs $1000 a month, each room is $2000 for the two occupants (you will have a roommate). This is called a fringe benefit and some of my peers were really upset about this. If you have a family and bills to pay, although you'll get a good job later, you'll have a very difficult time while you're in training. The New York hotel is lacking in a lot of ways. 3 bathrooms per floor, so sharing them with 40 other people, and 1 kitchen per floor. No storage space to cook your own food. The D.C. hotel is a lot better, almost like a suite where you share one bathroom and kitchen with two rooms, and the hotel provides dinner a couple nights a week. If you are given a choice go with the DC office. About the structure, the account managers and the trainers/training staff seem to have really bad disconnect. Very little communication between the two about how someone is doing, and trying to get all the trainees jobs. Now, this is my experience and doesnt apply to most everyone who goes through the FDM Process. All of my classmates got positions, so this is from my experience. I went through the entire training at FDM, and had interviews with 3 different clients. This is an extremely low amount. No one was able to tell me why I was not getting interviews, not the account managers or the director of the north American training. I believe it boiled down to my degree, which is the main thing of this review: If you have a degree in Computer Science, Finance, Business, or similar fields, go for FDM if you want to get into the IT field easily. If you don't, I highly don't recommend it. My professors loved me, and always continued to wonder why I wasn't getting inteviews as my collegues were. I was given an award while in training, passed all of my classes, and never had a bad attendance. Yet I was hired in because of the way FDM promotes their recuiters to account managers (the recruiters become account managers after x amount of people are recruited), even though my background would not get me a position with one of their clients. There was also a problem with FDM treats their products (which is their consultants). They have tiers of people, and it goes like this: Females Veterans anybody else They pride themselves in promoting women in tech, yet they do so at the determent to everyone else. I had a female in my class who failed 4 classes, came to work pretty hung over on mondays, who regularly fell asleep in class, and came into work an hour late on several occasions. Yet aside from this she not only had more interviews than I, but was placed with a client. Had this been a male, they would have been fired. Yet because she was female, and they pride themselves in women in tech, she was given a job. I could go on about the descrepancies of how non-vet males are lower on the scale than vets or females.

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