CSC Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

CSC is a diversified business, there are numerous vertical areas to focus on.

Cons

Large bureaucratic company that combines the disadvantages of a small company with the disadvantages of a large company. This is not an entrepreneurial organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate the specifics of your business plans - Communications to employees are vague and Dilbert like.

Pros

Job challenges and opportunities are what make it interesting to go to work each day.

Cons

Poor feedback and mentoring. Sometimes we're treated like kindergarten level children - do this, do that. No explanation, little mentoring and precious little praise for a job well done.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate, Cooperate and Collaborate. There is very little communication up or down. Employees at the technical and lower levels are merely told to do this or that without any incentive or explanation. I always liked the HP approach to management. They called it MBWA - management by walking around. I never saw any manager walk around their areas and I have worked in many areas of our area facilities.

Pros

Working at CSC gives you an opportunity to work with really smart people. You also have excellent opportunities to learn new skills (mostly self-service and on-line training options),

Cons

If you are coming from outside firm (non-IT consulting) you may have difficulty adjusting to this environment. Relationships with your clients is of utmost importance, but there is a great deal of pressure to be chargeable. Even though client relationships are valued, SLA's are how your are measured. Many CSC employees work out of their home offices so it does not necessarily foster a great "team" environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on customer service, not metrics.

Pros

CSC is very supportive in meeting employee needs for flextime, time off, and issues with work/family life. Probably a decent place for college grads looking to gain some experience

Cons

It is not a question of if, but when, you will lose your job either to off-shoring, budget cuts, or losing another account. Because there have been so many reductions, remaining employees are forced to take on multiple roles and few have the luxury of a 40 hour work week, more like 60 hrs week just to keep up. The company does not seem to know how to reduce costs other than to cut people. Never any budget to support the tools and training that employees need to excel in their roles. Very low employee morale. For an IT company, very little exposure to state-of-the-art technology and tools. No investment in employee growth or systems.

Advice to Senior Management

This company must get better at winning new bids, and bring in people who know how to streamline a business and make it more cost efficient without taking away the means for your revenue stream - the workers. Employees cannot continue to take on multiple roles and sacrifice personal safety and health. You need to INVEST in your people and the tools provided to them to do their jobs.

Pros

If you find a job you like and have good co-workers and a good boss, then this is a bearable place to work. This will help to buffer you from the constant worry that tomorrow you are going to hear that they are sending your job overseas.

Cons

They do not take one ounce of care into the abilities, knowledge, capabilities, or experience of American workers if they can possibly send the job to India and pay 1/3 the cost. Of course, then they get 1/3 the results. Although I feel my job may be secure "for now", I know that any day I could hear that they are sending my job to India and that I am out of luck.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop sending work out of the United States just because it is cheaper somewhere else. Stop making your American employees live in fear that their job may go away at any moment. It does nothing to motivate the employees.

Pros

There are no good reasons to work for Computer Sciences if you live in the United States. If you live in India, that is a whole other story. The sky is the limit!

Cons

Layoffs, offshoring, forced to use your vacation... should I go on?

Advice to Senior Management

Instead of always going after the almighty buck, how about thinking things out before shipping US jobs overseas? It took six India employees to do the work of one US employee. How is that cost savings?! Think!

Pros

Great referral bonuses, salary is great as well. So far, the company has been more than fair in allowing me to maintain a work/life balance. Lots and lots of online or virtual instructor led training.

Cons

Told on first day that it's nearly impossible to get fired from the company and it shows in some of the people wandering around the place. No development/growth plan put into place so it appears it's not really that important. What is my coach for again, I only spoke to them once to introduce myself. All training is done on your own time.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider how you reward your top performers and don't simply reward those that are nominated for president/giraffe awards. Find out who really does 80% of the project work by ASKING around your projects. Rewards could include training at the training vendor site, fully paid by CSC; attendance at conferences (i.e. SAP Tech Ed); a week or more of working remotely from home. Think outside of the box for rewarding the top 20% of your workers.

Pros

Many opportunities if you are willing and able to manage your own career goals
Large community of IT experts to network with and share knowledge and experiences

Cons

focus seems to be more on shareholder value and not on customer satisfaction
The IT outsourcing business as a whole seems to becoming more volitile as more customers are expecting bigger, better, faster and most important CHEAPER services and support
Incoming employees should expect no more than 2-5 years of service working for CSC do moslty to cost challenges and the constant influx of new staff being onboarded as part of new outsourcing agreements

Advice to Senior Management

Value the employee
Over communicate the long term strategies and goals of the coporation

Pros

The work environment is enjoyable. They are very flexible with the work schedule and the pay is comparable for the industry. They hire good qualified people that are nice to work with and this makes for a nice work experience

Cons

the benefits package is not up to industry standards and could really use some improvement.There is not much ability to move to other divisions of the company and in some instances within a division.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to improve the benefits package (401K and vary the health insurace options)

Pros

If you can work remotely, it's a big plus. Not all contracts allow working remotely though. If you are a good networker, that can help ensure your employment with CSC, because once a contract goes away, if you have a good reputation, you should be able to get work.

Cons

They will pile on an obscene amount of work if you don't know how to push back.

Advice to Senior Management

Write better contracts. Do some more research on the potential client and not be depended on extra professional services to make our profit. Let's make sure the potential client has the cash to spend on extra work.