Be VERY Careful. Option of last resort. Very honest review
Pros
Relevant Training (albeit at a much higher cost than you think), Opportunity to live in NYC (although you won't get paid enough to survive on your own there), benefits are decent, segued into a good job with experience from company, it's a job if you have given up on finding something else and need a job. I will start with the Pros, this company does offer very relevant and useful training courses. These courses are up to date with industry and you will be able to add them to your resume after you finish with FDM but they only offered us one certification where they would pay for the test. My advice would be to get as many certifications as you can while you have the knowledge of the training they give you so you can put it on your resume and get out of the company after 2 years. It will be extra work, but it is worth it in the long run. The opportunity to be in NYC was pretty cool and I did some fun things but I had money saved up for that before my time with FDM as they don't pay you enough to do anything more than survive while you are in NYC. They do offer benefits and match a low percentage of your 401K which is more than I was expecting after reading other reviews. I was able to find a job using my experience from FDM after my employment that doubled my salary but it wasn't with the company FDM sent me too and I think a huge part of it was I got some certifications FDM wouldn't pay for but provided the training for. But again good luck getting money for the test unless you have some before you start working here... For my situation it provided me with the opportunity to have a job where I wanted to work but I took a huge pay cut to do it. Overall if you can't find another job and need work, this can be a last ditch effort to get a job and it can get you a good job afterwards, but just prepare to feel cheated and way underpaid for 2+ years. All that said if you have the money go take a boot camp course in ITIL and whatever other certs you want and you won't have to be a slave to terrible salary for 2+ years.
Cons
Pay, the way they split up your pay, you will constantly have to check them on their word, you won't be able to afford breaking your contract, did not get an offer from the company FDM placed me at following my FDM stint, lied about our contract length, they pay you less than they make off of you. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS JOB UNLESS IT IS YOUR LAST HOPE. I had read a bunch of Glassdoor reviews and the bad ones are pretty factual. I needed a job so I took the job but you should know you are basically a slave to the company for the next 27 months. For starters, they give you good training but it cost you so much more than it would anywhere else. We got about 2 months of training but they double charge you for it. 1) They say you can't leave the company unless you pay them $30K and you only make about $45 or $50K a year so it is impossible to leave if you want a place to live and food to eat. 2) You will get paid well below your colleagues once you are on site. I kid you not, I took a job doing the exact same thing with less work for a new company and instantly over doubled my salary. They made us come to NYC for training (which is actually pretty cool) but then they pay you as if you live with your mom down the street! For training you get a bonus that will not cover a place to stay while you are in NYC and you get minimum wage for your training time, which if you have ever been to NYC means you might be lucky to eat PB&Js the whole time you are there and spend less than you make. Anything you want to do while in NYC is not coming from the money you make from FDM. Once we finished training, and were on-site, you quickly realize that the people who do your exact job make twice as much as you, and I am not exaggerating about that. What the client company pays FDM for you to work for them is over twice your salary so FDM makes more off of you than you actually make. Multiple times we had to recheck our paychecks because multiple times they were not correct when we got them. They purposely split up your pay in many ways just to confuse you so be ready to do some math every time you get a paycheck just to make sure you are getting that super low amount they are required to pay you by their contract! You won't be paid for holidays and likely you will be forced to use all of your vacation days when you don't want to (but that is dependent on the client you end up working for as well as FDM). We were told our contract would be 2 years, but that only includes your time on site, your contract is actually 2-3 months of minimum wage for training, plus 2 more years on top of that. We were also told we would have a month of training once onsite and THEN our 2 year contract would start. So you are basically stuck with them for longer than you thought. We also had our contract end a month before we were told it was, which you would think would be a good thing but we found out a month before that when a team member tried to get vacation time from our client and the client told us we actually weren't employed on that date even though FDM told us we would be. So all of us had one less month to search for a job or start getting half of what we thought we would get paid because FDM flat out lied to us about our end date. All I will say is be prepared to constantly check this company at their word. It was a miserable 2 years full of surprises. They do offer some helpful things but they come at a VERY expensive cost to you the employee.
