CSC Reviews

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Can sometimes find good projects, but it is often very uncertain if you can get the resources to do the project at critical junctures
Also, it has become very difficult to correct or negotiate improperly funded, badly-scoped projects Formerly was able to create or revise SOWs for projects and mitigate or prevent these issues, but no more

Cons – Good for the entrenched drones--do as you're told, they prefer people who are scared.
Business model assumptions of contract profitability are not grounded in reality--again and again and again. Mythical Operating Income targets based invalid assumptions of smooth processes and resource costs.
They keep throwing their employees under the bus.
Huge layoffs of critical resources. I think most of their accounts will go red.
Employees are pawns and used to get the balance sheet results they want -- no raises, layoffs, forced furloughs and employees now pay much high health care premiums--Huge reduction in overall compensation package.
Some very nice and competent people here and there.

Advice to Senior Management – No advice, it's useless, because they are stuck in their assumptions.
If any of you care about really creating something good, you're not at CSC or you're just hunkering down in survival mode.
You should value and celebrate your those employees in staff augmentation roles for the client, these are your best chances for creating goodwill and new business opportunities. Bring back the Portfolio Managers, you need real Relationship Managers, but if you can't deliver under the current/new models, I guess that's moot.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than a year

Pros – CSC has many excellent employees. If the company could use them effectively, giving them the support and nurturing that they need to succeed and to grow, CSC could be a dynamo. Also, the pay is good. Unfortunately, the best people can't be kept at a place with pay alone.

Cons – Sadly, CSC is bound up in red tape, backward technology and regressive thinking on workforce management. The CSC mentality is to load people with more and more work and expect it all to get done. 60-80 hour weeks are perfectly normal; in fact CSC consciously idolizes and rewards insane hours with no concern for the negative effects of this. CSC generally has very little concern for employee welfare, and very little concern about burnout or work/home balance. Extensive travel requirements are paired with a nit-picky and red-tape-oriented process for reimbursement. Project leadership varies widely in quality; sometimes it's quite excellent, sometimes it's so-so, sometimes the leaders have no idea what they're doing and don't listen well to those on their team who do know. Also, while CSC has tried very hard to master the art of controlling customer expectations, they have not tamed that beast yet. Scope creep is very much the norm, and no one at CSC seems to know how to prevent it.

Recently with the reorg, benefits have taken a huge hit, and salaries could be next.

Advice to Senior Management – The best people are by far the most important. CSC needs to do what it takes to recruit and keep this top talent, and it can't do this by cutting employee-facing costs and working them 60-80 hours every week. Unless CSC wishes to be in a race to the bottom on price, the emphasis has to be on growth paired with excellent delivery, and this is fueled by having the best talent.

This will require a significant change in culture. The current culture is that employees are cookie-cutter resources, while paying lip-service to the importance of staff. I hope that CSC does increase its competitive edge, but I am skeptical that this is realistic or possible without huge energy from the top and a significant management reorg.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at CSC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good Benefits. Decent Pay. Consistent schedule.

Cons – Mandatory OT due to insufficient staffing. Natural attrition was never dealt with. Teams were allowed to whittle down to nothing and supervisors were laid off and teams combined. No sense of commitment from upper management. Morale plummeted.

Advice to Senior Management – 97% Occupancy is not worth the price in turnover. Not hiring at one site to shut it down slowly was an awful way to reduce operating costs. Firing management and rehiring less experienced staff to save some money is not a good way to keep up morale, quality, or production either.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Telecommuting highly encouraged
Good people down in the "weeds"
Many account teams have great synergy among the team and the client providing an enjoyable work experience

Cons – "My way or the highway" mentality of senior execs
Innovation not valued or encouraged
Most delivery people are treated as intercahangeable widgets
No training for several years
Technology provided to employees refreshed infrequently

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to the "worker bees", not just the synchophants in the executive ranks on how to improve performance and profitability.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at CSC full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company invests in their people. They have a generous tuition reimbursement program. They offer up to $15,000 per year for 2 calendars years for a master's program. (Definitely not enough to afford an MBA at a reputable program. An MBA at Northwestern University or University of Chicago costs about 2x the tuition reimbursement dollars you get.) If you leave the company within 12 months of taking any course, you will owe the company money. All employees are eligible for free Six Sigma Black Belt training and certification. Most test for certifications are covered 100% including Salesforce tests. There are lots of online resources available and lots of training.

You get to keep the points on the AMEX corporate card. You also get to keep all of your points for the hotels and the airlines. They cover all of your food expenses while you travel.

The company tries to give you work life balance in the consulting life style. The company usually tries to have you travel between Monday - Thursday ever week. Sometimes you have to stay on client site through the weekend if the client requires it.

Cons – The company will bend over backwards to please the client. If this means you have to give back your billable hours because the client doesn’t like your work, the company will make you comply with the client demands. If the client wants you to be there several weekends in a row, you have to comply. Often times when you’re traveling, typical office hours are 8AM – 6:30PM or 7PM. It’s not unusual for a client to take advantage of you to have you work very late at night and ask for tight and unreasonable deadlines. If a client likes you, they will try to keep you on the project as long as possible. You will not move on to better projects or advance your career aslong as the client requests you to work for them. The client owns your career.

Furthermore, There are many people actively looking to leave the company because of how the company has been handling their RIF (Reduction In Force) process. The company is large and has lost its way. It’s hard to feel a connection in such a large company. As an Associate, you don’t get proper training to be a consultant. You get a 2 week training session called “Launch”. One week is focused on some basic consulting skills and the next week is focused on iRise training. 2 weeks is not enough time to prepare anyone for the consulting world. They really do set you up for failure.

CSC is going through a large restructuring. There are RIF's happening on all levels including to entry level associates. The decisions are not made based on performance. The decisions are not objective at all. Even if you are billable on projects, you can and will be let go if the company sees fit. Most people get a 1 week notice when the company decides to let them go. The meeting lasts for less than 30 minutes. Contrary to CSC's recent claims on the news, the approach taken is very short and cold. The severance package includes 2 weeks of pay for every year you've been with the company plus any vacation days you've accumulated. Which is not much, you are allotted 10 days. They are not flexible or understanding what so ever. If you want time off, you have to notify the company weeks, if not months, in advance if you want any kind of time off.

If you get ill, you may miss your bonus. If you can't travel due to illness, you can be fired. I know someone at the company that got ill, was ordered by doctors to limit travel, weeks later that individual was fired. The company did not even recognize the fact that the work was being done and completed remotely.

Once they let you go you can’t reapply to the company for a full 12 months.

Currently, at the corporate headquarters CSC is undergoing a major Financial Transformation project. It’s supposed to save the company $5 Million per year. The decisions made for this project are very political and not objective at all. The company was considering several vendors but they have settled for an SAP solution because their current systems heavily rely on SAP already. If you say anything that upsets upper management on the project you are immediately thrown off of the project within a few weeks.

If you are staffed to a health care project you will not be compensated with a quarterly utilization bonus. Almost all of the projects in health care are not making a profit. All of the people staffed on any health care projects are punished due to this reason. Even if you are billable you won’t get your bonus.

If you can, avoid projects with Kroger. Their corporate culture involves a lot of screaming matches from their own employees. Once you're on a project it's hard to get out because if they like you they keep switching you from one project to another within Kroger.

Advice to Senior Management – If you're going to take on a new associate and fire them in less than a year don't bother hiring them in the first place. You waste so much money training someone for less than a year only to get rid of him or her.

Focus on your people. If you don’t care about them they won’t care about your company. Also look for a way to retain the information in a repository that way you don’t lose the information as soon as the employee leaves the company.
Focus on making decisions more objectively rather than politically. Don’t set up your employees for failure.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at CSC full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – For the most part, great people to work with. As long as you are connected to the correct people, you will be golden. It should be a great place to work once the dust settles from the massive reorg they are going through.

Cons – Politics are horrendous. No one knows who CSC is. The brand is terrible and BCG has wiped out some of the better people. Benefits stink.

Advice to Senior Management – Hopefully the new CEO will keep cleaning house; maybe one day CSC will be recognized.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Talented people. Very supportive environment. Lots of training available for those who are willing to grow. Great benefits and perks. Everyone I worked with were hard working, team players and people of intergrity. Lots of flexibility to move between projects rather than doing the same work year after year.

Cons – Previous company was acquired by CSC so my salary was lower than others and the company did not adjust. Travel can get tough and become a challenge to the work-life balance.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than a year

Pros – One of the few companies that was still offering a pension plan. Education, health, life, and many other great benefits. Company has positions worldwide.

Cons – For my section pay seemed to be relatively low compared to other companies in similar fields. They offered low base pay and offset with uplifts which are always unpredictable.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Top talent and opportunities as a senior manager and consultant

Cons – Large company. Employees need to conform with systems and procedures. Adhere to standards, work with global teams and management.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at CSC full-time for more than a year

Pros – large company with many resources

Cons – management is not well connected with consultants

Advice to Senior Management – fewer meetings and paper work

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend