Capgemini US Reviews

Pros

Well, this is one organization which I always dreamt of working & now I am getting it. I am extrmely thrilled by this. The package I recieved is way better than its competitor. Your personal aspirations are taken care by Capgemini.

Cons

The management needs some improvement. HR policies are good but can be made better by considering the employe's aspiration.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work but do take care of employee as it is them through which company gets its revenue.

Pros

European leader in its field

Cons

it is not very people oriented

Pros

Gain tremendous amount of experiences while there
Opportunities to travel
Compensation is low compared with other consultancies

Cons

Long hours expected
Little work life balance
Little management support

Advice to Senior Management

Review salaries to reduce staff turnover rates
Review senior management styles to ensure they are not ignoring staff issues where staff are working too long hours, causing staff to leave

Pros

My coworkers are great and very talented and hard working. We really do hire a lot of talented people.

Software Development team has flexibility in using what ever tools we need to get the job done , ie. iPads, iPhones, etc in spite of official policies otherwise.

Lots of social activities and community activities.

Cons

Reactionary leadership constantly causes issues. Always seems that the new emergency overrides best practices and the new emergency is often caused by the response to te previous emergency.

Thought leadership is encouraged in word but rarely in deed. Management to just expects you to meet your deliverables and not cause them.

Some are promoted to management just because they hav been around long enough it seems and thy don't have much in the way of leadership skills.

Training is encouraged company wide but rarely supported by management and there is a great deal of confusion about how to actually get approval for training.

Advice to Senior Management

Trust your consultants. Don't ask to be copied on every email. Lead instead of micromanage. Clarify training routes and get local management on board with training.

Pros

Collaborative atmosphere
Government Solutions a growing area
Pleasant, can do atmosphere
Opportunity to participate in centers of practice, centers of excellence
Work life balance emphasis supportive of workers with families, other demands in off hours.

Cons

Government Solutions as part of Capgemini NA was kind of the "stepchild"
Due to Government requrements, systems of CGGS had to be kept separate from Capgemini NA, which meant there was not as much opportunity for knowledge sharing, or even software use as would have made job easier for me
Not understanding Capgemini levels and culture before coming on board was a disadvantage when negotiating position and understanding what was offered at other levels that might have afforded the opportunity to negotiate a better package
Not enough effort is spent to find places for people who are displaced from projects costs the company a lot of attrition of good workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the time to work with Capgemini GS more closely
Work on a better angle for collaboration between the two parts of the company, dismantle some of the wall between the two.
If there is an employee who is hired who is a good employee overall, but possibly could do better in another position, see if there is a way to help find a match, instead of allowing talent to walk out the door, or get cut from contracts without a place to go.
Have recruiting clarify roles for employees, and what that means for their packages when they extend offers or before the employee comes on, so that expecations are set at the proper level.

Pros

It provides some great opportunities to get industry exposure in multiple industries.

Cons

Crazy hours, not consistent management.

Advice to Senior Management

Love more.

Pros

Good compensation, Very aggressive growth targets. Excellent Supply chain practice. Growing oracle practice. Good collaboration with Global organization. Excellent growth in BRIC countries

Cons

Growth targets not aligned with organization structure. Sales organization not designed to bring in sufficient pipeline to fuel growth. In US Capgemini needs to make it self a better brandname as it competes with other big 3.

Advice to Senior Management

Review Organization structure in US. Make sure it has the right foundation for aggresive growth targets. Need to invest more in IP / skills development

Pros

- go0d work life balance
- great team and support from colleagues
- knowlege sharing
- good work culture
- opprtunity to learn and demostrate your skills to client

Cons

- management doesn't care much as far as you are billable
- confusing and less transparent appraisal process
- too many managers into confusing roles
- sloppy HR , recruitment and internal process and people

Advice to Senior Management

Needs more transperent appraisal process and whole restrcturing with new people manager process is confusing and unfair.

Pros

You get to Travel to projects and can use weekends in a project city (country) to see new places, rarely had weekend free time

Cons

Expected weekend work as usual hours
Yearly review process was over thought
Work was dumped on you by MD's at last minute on Fridays with expectations it was would be ready on Monday

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and take their ideas, they see all parts of a project and have ideas on how to improve the process

Pros

-Fellow consultants are supportive and there is a good team-oriented vibe. The majority of people have been easy to work with.
-Client projects provide strong learning opportunities and the client relationships are healthy
-The workload is pretty high, but since you're learning so much, it'll add some bulk to your resume in a short amount of time.
-Once you're on a client, it's typically for the long haul.
-Reasonable OT + expense compensation (It's not lavish, don't take the term "reasonable" the wrong way)

Overall: You get a stable work place environment, there isn't much time on the bench and you'll get reasonable compensation. There's a lot of room for you to gain some really valuable work experience, but these might be skills you will have to use at another firm if you're looking for a more aggressive track up the corporate ladder (see Cons below)

Cons

-It's easy to get tied to a role on a project/client for the long term, at the expense of a career.
-Once you're on a client, it's typically for the long haul (This can be a con for some of you, or a pro... it just depends on what you're looking for)
-Internal promotion process and the year-end review process aren't very helpful as far as career advancement. It's rumored that the more times you have attempted to be promoted, the higher your chances of actually getting one over a more deserving candidate who is only on their first attempt to get promoted.
-Internal re-organization of divisions/business units happens once a year. It's unclear what the strategic goal behind this is, and is never clearly defined.

Advice to Senior Management

The main issue is that you might be losing some of your more valuable resources to other firms due to the fact that it's easy to feel like your career is at risk of growing stagnant. There is a clear lack of flexibility to leave a project if you want to (even if you've paid your dues well past your initially proposed roll-off date), unless you are fortunate enough to know a manager or VP who has an open need elsewhere and will pull you on. The staffing process of finding resources for new roles is inefficient (it's possible that HR is understaffed themselves?) and changing business units and divisions is not helping anybody.

Capgemini is a good firm, there are just ways to make it more efficient by spending a little more time on retaining your value-adding resources and providing better communication and incentive to stay for the long-term.