FDM Group reviews

- Unpaid "training" period - during the time I was there, I was given a regular £20-30 C# book and told to sit at a computer and work through it. This was supposedly worth £20k. - FDM takes a huge cut of the pay. When I started, they were paying £12k base with £6 an hour, which was later changed to £18k base with £2 an hour (giving everyone a pay cut), but most people are charged out to clients at somewhere in the ballpark of £300 a day. - if you try and leave, they threaten to hit you with a 20k training bill... although I also know a few people who have left without paying, I think FDM tries to bury that news - if you end up at a client who makes you work longer than your 37.5/40 hours, FDM expects you to do unpaid overtime - no sick pay - took a month to start between getting a placement and starting onsite, all unpaid - was put into a programming in a language I had no experience in, and different from what the account manager told me it was going to be, when I mentioned this, I was told more training would be arranged for me, but this never materialised in the 2 years Incidentally, the client did want me to go onto more training, but FDM wasn't willing to pay for it, and the client felt they were already paying FDM for the training, and weren't willing to pay somebody else to train me on top In general, FDM don't want to hear from you when you're on site and making money for them, the less they hear from you the better, all they want is your timesheet. They have no real interest in career development or training. Also, if you look through most of the reviews, they break down into two categories. 1. The good reviews are usually people who work for FDM as account managers/trainers/etc, and the occasional person who had no IT experience and got it via FDM 2. The poor reviews are basically everyone who FDM took on to send out to clients, most of the people who work at FDM are the latter, they do their 2 year stint (unless they can get out quicker) and then get out. Last comment I would make is that FDM pay companies to manage their online reputation and spend a fair bit on marketing, so they get good write ups in a lot of places

Training • Was given no formal training – all self-taught. Charged 20k for something I could have done better at home. • No certification or anything to show for it. • Passed interviews for placements which ended up falling through with no real explanation as to why. • Took over a month and a half to start after securing an actual placement as FDM tried to negotiate stupid rates with client. Placement • Was meant to be a Java position however ended up doing something completely different. FDM didn’t care as long as they were making money and didn’t want to place me elsewhere so as to not ruin their relationship with client ... so I was forced to carry on. • Rent is very high in central London and I was having to pay back a loan I took out to survive the unpaid period (don't want to call it training) – living like a pauper even though I was working for blue chip IB… FDM didn’t care. Try to make any reasonable requests for help and you're threatened with legal action and reminded of the "fee". Ultimately my placement ended a few months before my 2 years was up so I spent some more time back at the lovely FDM office. Treated very bad – not treated like employees and treated worse than school children. No appreciation for the hard work you put in and the sacrifices you made. Senior sales will love to tell you how hard they work for you and how you're in no position to make any requests. To top it off I was punished for forgetting Java even though FDM forced me to continue with a non development role and I was told we are expected to have carried on practicing Java outside of work. My career aspirations and complaints were ignored as long as I was making money for them and when the tables had turned they wanted to punish me for it. 2 years on and I have nothing to show for it... my career as a Java developer hasn't progressed and my only achievement is that I've filled the FDM coffers at my own expense. The reality of this company honestly comes out when a group of FDM mountees get together – everyone had their own grievances with FDM of very bad experiences or issues with the company - would rarely hear a good sentiment towards them. Most people regret ever having joined the company. Having an affiliation with FDM makes you depressed – you feel ashamed to tell fellow co-workers you’re from that place… The people running this scheme know exactly what they're doing. They are money hungry and have no morals. My advice to anyone looking to join..... DON'T! Not until they make some real changes and treat their mountees better. Will look back to this board in a few years and hopefully we have see some positive reviews.