Capgemini Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

Capgemini has a large number of very competent people so it is a good place to learn from others. The architects community is very strong as is their training in IAF. The university in France is good fun and there are opportunities both to learn and to teach others.

Cons

Capgemini was very political and it was more who you know and not what you know. The middle management seemed to want to protect their positions which is not unusual in large consultancies.
If you want to do pure consulting work then this is a good place to work, but given their reliance on the HMRC contract, they are not aggressive in bidding for new large work and recently have been bidding as subs and not primes.

Advice to Senior Management

Sort out the way in which staff are assessed etc. and this will improve moral and also ensure the best people rise to the top.

Pros

Meritocracy, good people, good work/life balance. some excellent projects and thought-leading work. Some teams extremely dynamic, aggressive and undoubtedly world-class. Almost all people have time for you with a big cultural emhasis on mentoring, coaching and collaboration. As a result even the most time-pressed and inspiring leaders find time to speak with the best people.

Cons

Sometimes not aggressive enough so promotion opportunties become difficult after middle management. Can be bueraucratic.and too "by the book". Offices not great. Sometimes it doesn't feel like you're working in a tier-1 company. Sometimes doesn't raise the bar high enough and laggards can get away with poor performance over a number of years before being finally found out.

Advice to Senior Management

Some great people wasting away, cut the hangers-on, take risks and be bold!

Pros

Good work/life balance, great people, some good opportunities, chance to be a big fish in small pond, good recognition, flat stucture, good grad shceme. Invest in people - lots of training, good leave allowance, great about sick leave etc.

Cons

Some rubbish projects, too much IT/public sector, hopeless internal processes, needs to be ambitious, poor brand, strategy team is a small team in a big company, no one has heard of the company, London office is over-crowded and not great. Based much more on who you know than what you know, saleries lower than competitors, huge process to get promoted and takes a long time.

Advice to Senior Management

Take more risks, sort out the basics and go after good projects!

Pros

Great work atmosphere, good technical team, good training, if you work hard you will be rewarded, it is a good company to have on your CV, for a major SI the management approach is relaxed, fair work/life balance, as a consultant they provide good expense scheme.

Cons

Unfair promotions, hard to move up the corporate ladder, it sometimes feels like the management do not know what they are doing. Promotion is sometimes based on who you know rather than what you know or what you did. If you are in a lower grade then you might as well leave anc come back to get a big promotion or pay rise.

Advice to Senior Management

Review promotion process

Pros

Good company to work for and offers project based work.

Cons

Wide pay bands and sometimes you feel like you are not being rewarded for the effort you put in.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more reward for har working and performance.

Pros

There is a good atmosphere and Capgemini generally employs staff who are focused on good delivery and mutual support. Everyone makes a valid contribution and promotion is based on your capability rather than some of the more negative means of climbing up the ladder. It is a fair employer in terms of diversity.

Cons

It is probably an industry norm, but the hours are long and it often means working weekends. Over the past few years there has been a distinct reduction of investment in activities that boost moral and team spirit and that in turn is changing the atmosphere within the company

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

Great training & development opportunities: the training centre at Les Fontaines is 1st class, and the range of courses available overall (both there and in the UK) is excellent. The amount of training per employee (20 days / year) is generous, and there are no qualms about sending people on external courses. You can even take time out from client work to attend pre-booked training, at the project manager's discretion.
Great benefits package, salary OK: The flexible benefits package is a great bonus, very useful. Headhunters have also advised me that my salary is towards the upper end of my experience bracket, but that's after strong performance and early promotion - so it should be. But no bonus...
Good work/life balance: generally hours are very reasonable, and sometimes positively relaxed. This does vary from one project to another, but the emphasis is usually on putting in enough hours to over-deliver, but not doing any more than that just for the sake of clocking up face time.

Cons

No bonus until you reach Senior Consultant: This is particularly frustrating, and makes junior employees feel less valued.
Silo mentality which means some teams in particular feel restrictive: The business isn't joined up, so it's not easy to move around within the business. A missed opportunity for them, because it would encourage useful knowledge-transfer, but also limiting from an employee perspective.
2nd / Economy class travel at almost all times for almost all staff: Again, makes you feel less valued. A one-size-fits-all measure that was implemented to curb the excesses / abuses of a few.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in advertising that doesn't look like Tintin cartoons: The ads that you come across in the Economist and other newspapers are embarassing. Capgemini doesn't have as strong a brand as some of its competitors, but it does great work and has great people nonetheless. Crappy advertising fails to make the most of its strengths.

Pros

Cap offered a good salary and benfits package. THe flexible benefits allowed you to select what options were important to you and priotise these. 30 days holiday also helped!

Cons

Work-life balance and project opportunities. Cap certaininly make you work for your money - your ass is theirs from 8am Monday to 8pm Friday (and often longer). This can have a detrimental impact on your personal life and is not something I would consider once I had a family. As a singleton it was perfect.
Another issue was the minimal (if any) choice you had over projects you were allocated to - it was usually a case of you were sent to a certain project regardless of whether the role fitted your job description or career aspirations.

Advice to Senior Management

Realise that people have lives outside of work!

Pros

Provide good training. Major focus is on European Market so if you are working in UK you can always fly back to home on week ends. Very good reward and reorganization scheme.

Cons

I have joined the organization last year and fortunately things went very well with me. At this moment I don’t see any downside .

Advice to Senior Management

The company should really focus on gearing up offshore activities to provide value for money services.

Pros

Professional, can-do attitude of staff, good team-spirit, nice office environment, pay and benefits are never as high as you hope but feel they compare well with the industry as a whole. Good levels of respect from senior staff, especially with newcomers etc. Good induction programmes and lots of worldwide opportunities for those with relevant skills, interests and enthusiasm

Cons

client based working can be difficult - we are all very much tarred with one brush. outsourcing has a somewhat negative view across the industry and this can be reflected in the attitudes of the client staff with whom you work. generally we are perceived as professional and competent individuals but sometimes the company as a whole is viewed negatively due to press coverage, general fears about outsourcing, redundancy etc

Advice to Senior Management

continue listening to your people, and feedback and inform often, especially when the news is bad. please dispel market rumours and industry gossip quickly as silence/no comment can often be demotivating and destabilising