Telstra – “good place but can be very bureaucratic”

Pros

Lots of very experienced, well intentioned, professional people who are generally pretty nice. Pays well, good working hours (9 - 5.30). Good seperation of work and home life, well defined technology delivery processes, big projects with large budgets and high profiles, people are impressed you work there.

Cons

Sol and his amigo's seem primarily motivated by their massive bonuses. A lot of senior managers are focused on managing perceptions upwards and don’t do anything to resolve serious issues in their departments that make it difficult for their staff to achieve their objectives. There is a blame culture which encourages a lot of bureaucratic processes, procedures and people that make it very hard to get things done and make everything take three times as long and cost three times as much as it should. Senior management are in denial about the fact that they are a techology based organisation. Senior management dont allow any competition for primary vendors and as a result they get away with doing a very mediocre job at a high price. Accenture are busily raping and pillaging the place and the acting CIO Tom Lamming has a massive conflict of interest as an Accenture Partner. Fortunately you get used to the bureaucracy after a while and develop a talent for getting things done through networks and escalation.

Advice to Senior Management

Telstra is a techology driven organisation. Accept it and build up your core competencies in technology delivery instead of constantly trying to outsource it. Ask your staff what issues they are having that are stopping them from achieving their work objectives and then resolve them. Open up your major vendors to competition.