Electronic Data Systems Reviews in Detroit, MI Area

Pros

Working with sharp technical people, nice benefits, fairly stable job.

Cons

Takes forever and a day to get decisions made, really to get anything done. Too much bureaucracy. A good ol' boys club at the top. Can't get ahead no matter how good you are. You have to leave and come back to get anywhere - so they say anyway. HP merger treating EDS US employess like numbers/statistics; laying off and cutting pay with no regard to how valuable an individual employee may be.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management probably wouldn't listen or it would get lost in the shuffle, so I'd save my breath.

Pros

There are some "old school" EDSers that are trying to keep the old EDS spirit alive. This includes very personable interactions with management, taking care of people, just being a good place to grow and work.

Cons

The folks that are left with the "old EDS" mentality are few and far between. The ones that are left struggle to do small things such as lunch out, trinkets, or any form of recognition since it has all been shut down. Overall compensation is flat and advancement opportunity minimal.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay Attention to your employees. Not Managers that tell you what you want to hear.

Pros

Challenging (you sometimes have the opportunity to sink or swim on a project), opportunity to advance your career (you can be a hero if you can swim).

Cons

Constantly re-organizing (I had 6 managers in one 2 year period), getting lost in the shuffle because of their size (I went 3.5 years one time without a salary increase), beaurocratic (lots of layers and processes), difficult to locate a specific group or service for a customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a plan and stick to it for more than a year. In their desire to chase the Industry and secure business, executives are processed through a revolving door and companies are purchased.

Pros

The technical people you will work with at EDS are some of the brightest and best anywhere. Team members are supportive of each other and will work hard to get the job done every day. Although they are challenging to find now, there are opportunities to grow within the company. A lot of people go from technical to management, but you do not need to that. You can stay technical throughout your career and be successful. Be advised, that it does get more challenging to do that as you advance.

There is a plethora of online training resources available within the company. So, if you are interested in learning something new, and are willing to invest your own time, there are lots of free resources available to you. Depending on your role, you may have opportunities to travel around the USA and the world, which is very cool!

Cons

Since the merger with HP in 2008, the environment has been in a state of flux. It is not clear how things will shake out for "legacy" EDS employees. I think that a lot of us have the feeling that we will be (or are being) treated like afterthoughts. The HP culture is different than the EDS culture, so it may be a few years before we "legacy" EDS employees truly think of ourselves as HP employees.

Currently, finding new positions within the company is almost impossible. If you have a job within HP/EDS now, you are probably stuck there for the forseeable future (12 to 18 months). All of the managers are hunkered down and not hiring new staff, because they are afraid they are going to be told to fire some of their current staff to cut costs. So, if you are planning to come work for HP/EDS, do not plan on advancing to something else for a while.

We all just had our salaries cut 5% and there is a freeze on raises and bonuses. So, don't expect more money anytime soon.

The relationship between EDS and some of its clients is downright hostile in some cases. Some of EDS' biggest customers (Bank of America and GM, for example) are facing huge financial problems of their own, so there is a tendency for them to try and squeeze every penny out of their vendors. There is also a weird disconnect between what you read in the industry magazines and what you will find at an individual performer level. The CIO of Company X may say that EDS is a great partner and has helped save us millions of dollars, blah, blah, blah. But on the inside, the CIO's minions are bullying and berating EDS on a daily basis.

Be prepared to support poorly worded contracts with ambiguous service level agreements that will have your manager pulling their hair out for the duration of the contract. It happens all the time.

Advice to Senior Management

EDS needs to learn how to write contracts that are not going to be fought over by lawyers defining what they really mean. EDS should stick to its guns on what is supported and what is not supported and make sure we get paid. EDS should have contracts reviewed by technical people who really understand the nuts and bolts of providing support and services, BEFORE they are consummated.

Pros

Large company with opportunities around the globe. If you're willing to take chances and travel for work, there's no limit to what you can accomplish. There is a strong network of support teams who are always available for consultation. There is a solid pipeline of work as new business is sold at a fast pace. Unfortunately, no one feels very confident that the pipeline will last as senior leadership decisions will be felt down the road.

Cons

Recently taken over by HP. Horrible senior leadership team who are each lining their pockets at the expense of the rank-and-file, and the long-term health of the company. Middle management appears to be frozen in fear as entire departments are eliminated. Extremely low morale throughout the company.

Advice to Senior Management

They aren't open to advice. They clearly have a plan to gut the company to improve the short-term financial outlook. They will all be long gone when the long-term impact of their decisions is felt by the company.

Pros

- Access to many very informative training programs
- People are dedicated to their work
- Coworkers can easily commiserate with how miserable you are in your job

Cons

- Most workforce in their 40's or older
- Culture clash with HP, who recently bought EDS
- Tools are manually intenseive and archaic
- Focus is on processes and not results

Advice to Senior Management

- Treat employees with more respect and not as a commodity
- Increase diversity of thought & opinion amoung decision-makers

Pros

There is good project work for talented people. EDS supports a broad range of technologies and there is always a willingness to move into new areas. There are some very good people at EDS, not all, but many.

Cons

Too many layers of management. Expenses are controlled by administrative types who have no idea what it's really like to travel on a regular basis. It is a large company, so many of the common complaints apply. Decisions are driven from the top. As a P&L manager, the business is no longer your own. This is a change that's taken place over the last decade as the competition and economy have tightened.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the CEO. Ron Rittenmeyer has the carisma of a toad. He commands no respect in the industry or the company based on his actions.

Pros

EDS has some redeeming qualities:
VERY good work/life balance. I typically barely work 40hrs/wk. And honestly most of the day is not very intesne.
Pretty generous vacation policy: I got 3 weeks off as a new hire. Even better if you can get on the GM account, tons of bonus vacation days.
Workplace is not very competitve, If one cares at all and is remotely intelligent you can probably advance in your career.

Cons

Wow where to begin....

Piss poor compensation. And going down. Within the past month a 5% cut, then another 10%. Plus Salary Freezes.
Job cuts related to merger.
Management consistently disrespects and devalues the employees.

Would recommend this company to no one. Particularly new college graduates as the culture is very bad: everyone is 40-50 year old and boring.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide a decent work environment and show the employees some respect when it comes to compensation.

Pros

Worked there for 23 years. Loved it as had lots of opportunities to learn (not as many when I left)

Cons

Sadly the company changed. No longer supports teamwork, pay for performance. It's run by check marks: (check: you entered your time); instead of getting the job done well.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at what people produce

Pros

The people are very knowlegeable and great to work with. My salary and benefits are pretty good even though salary and bonuses have been frozen for those of us doing the work (not management or sales).

Cons

Too many levels of management, management who do not know what their people do and do not appreciate the amount of work that they do. The expectation that every time someone is let go, someone else will pick it up -- and we usually do. Most of us are working much more than 40 hours a week. There is also the "forced" commutes now that they are closing buildings adding quite a bit of travel time and the thinking that because we are "leveraged" teams we all have to sit together - lack of recognition of our ability to work remotely even though we are a global company with global teams and customers.
It cost around 100 million dollars for the top people to leave EDS when HP bought us and promptly announced that 24,000 people would be let go. And though this isn't just an EDS/HP problem, the amount of money that the top people make are way out of line with what the people doing the daily work make.
Best shore is a concept that all are using but seems like a slap at those of us in the US - we have the talent and the expertise but that is no longer valued because we "make too much money".
There is constant pink slipping of employees - morale is very low as you are constantly waiting for the tap on the shoulder telling you that you are no longer wanted. And the new compensation package is a joke - they keep you "working" for 60 days but take away all of your equipment and put the word out to other managers that if you are on the "list" they cannot hire you. And if you happen to find another position outside of the company in that 60 day period, they consider you have "quit" and refuse to pay you the rest of the compensation package. That is very unfair to those who have been let go.

Advice to Senior Management

Relook at the compensation package and at the layers of management. Actually listen to your workers - they really do know what the customer needs and are more than willing to do what it takes to make the contracts work.