It seems like some of the positive reviews on here are fake and may have been left by FDM to boost their reputation (though I'm not sure how much it will help). So take those with a grain of salt.
- The account managers are straight-up MEAN. They will ask you to take up roles that you may not want to and if you say no they will manipulate and verbally bully you into thinking that something is wrong with you. E.g. they will use phrases like " You should be lucky that we have roles that require no communication", implying you have poor communication skills. Instead of building up young professionals, they just put them down even more. This is extremely damaging to the confidence of some fresh grads who have no work experience and have come to FDM starry-eyed thinking this is a great opportunity. It is very common to make judgements on people based on superficial interactions. If this has happened to you, you're not the only one and don't let these words affect you, believe in yourself and if you are not being given roles internally, look elsewhere - I'm sure another company will value you more :)
- The company just wants to place you and make money off you they don't care about your wellbeing or if you will actually like the job or your career prospects
- HR is useless, again they don't really care about your wellbeing and do whatever the account managers say. SO pointless raising concerns to them
- Lack of roles for software development streams, they promise you the world during recruitment and cannot deliver once you're in
- 2 years binding contract, ~180k HKD penalty if you leave
- Training is useless, they have been recycling training content for the last 15 years and I have never heard anyone say ONCE that their training helped them on placement. I think it is a way for FDM to trap up in a 2 year contract and justify charging fresh grads 200k if they want to leave
- Minimal support received from FDM on site - again pretty useless. Just something FDM likes to flaunt about to sound like a real consulting company but really has 0 values in reality.
- They like to torture people and make them go through unnecessary assessments and mock interviews that rarely actually help the consultant. It keeps most people operating from a place of fear because they are told that if they don't pass they will be kicked out.
- Main thing is that the people within FDM, grown adults, target young people and manipulate them and use our weaknesses against us. Really not a positive environment to be in.
Advice to people considering FDM/ consultants:
Don't come here if you think you can land opportunities elsewhere, especially if you are a software developer or want niche experience in the space - python, for example, fdm is not the place for that. Come here if you want to get your foot through the door at a large MNC and are willing to put up with the wrath of the Account Managers for that, and take up any roles. A lot is based on luck so keep that in mind.
If you do get in, and want to get a good role, kiss up to the AM's - some of them are nice, some not. Keep in mind they make judgements on you based on EVERY interaction they have with you so always try to appear chatty/ proactive (for some reason they don't appreciate diversity in personality and don't like people being quiet). Figure out how each of them operate when you are in training and just try to be nice to avoid conflict because they take opportunities away from you if they don't like you (yes preferrential treatment). So in my opinion, just kiss up to them and be nice to get what YOU want to get and hopefully you don't have to interact with them ever again. Play their game and get what you want, be smart about it and less emotional - remember they don't care about your career or wellbeing, so you need to take charge of this. If you play your cards right you can land a GREAT opportunity that may change the trajectory of your career. FDM is just a means to an end, also they aren't a consulting company, they are a recruiting firm - so treat the AM's as just that - recruiters. They do not and cannot know better about you and your career goals better than you. Be persistent with them for roles that you want and don't take what they say personally, be strong!
