Please read, digest, and then run!
Pros
1.The awesome people who you might be lucky to meet and work with but these people are often just as frustrated as you might end up so end up leaving meaning they are few and far between. 2. If you're someone who innovates and thinks differently then congrats because FDM will definitely teach you how to slowly or rapidly dispose of that meaning you can then re-assess what's really important and find a company that gets people like us.
Cons
Where does one start? Firstly, it must be noted that a lot of the thumbs up glowing reviews here are actively sought out by marketing and recruitment teams to paint a rosier picture than exists. It is no wonder the negative reviews are the ones that get the most thumbs up for being helpful. Digest that. The issues of exploiting often dejected grads, returners and ex-forces have been well covered in plenty of reviews and my input is to say every single one is valid. How can the same people be saying the same thing for so long and no company response actually takes ownership of this and attempts to address it? Digest that. Diversity is nothing but a stat the company uses to try and get more people locked into their training scheme & appeal to clients who pay the money. For example the stats will say over 50% of SMT are women but how many are diverse? Different races, sexual orientation, non-friends of Directors? If you attend an assessment day take a long hard look at the staff (not the trainees) and you'll see it is very non reflective of how beautiful true diversity is. In a world packed full of different people from all walks of life why do a huge proportion of internal staff follow one 'look'. See other reviews about cliques. Digest that. It is with a merry heart that number 2 in the above 'Pros' was my experience and after being well and truly victimised for speaking out against injustices in the office it was time to value myself and get out before my 10 years of industry experience was flushed down the drain in favour of mundane sameness. Basically, an amazing company have now taken me on but like many reviews on here how I have been treated upon handing my notice has been deplorable. Having always truly believed in how social media could help the company and always performed with professionalism when it came to social media I was taken off all social media accounts without any message to let me know. Consider I am still employed with the company. Like many others above I was then lied to when flagging this up and my own manager didn't even let me know the plan would be to make me come in one day (a week before my contract ends) & then say don't come back (they do this a lot). In fact I had to ask if this was the plan to which a sheepish and skirting around a straight answer came. This is a company that values people though. Digest that. Lastly, the reputation of HR in this office working together with staff who want to ostracise people to discuss details of people's files, encourage you be flagged for action to appease someone else's personal gripe with you, and not be impartial in office politics is a real shame. Not to mention an attack on the ethics of HR. Many a time I heard wages being discussed, people's disciplinaries and personal circumstances as a topic of office gossip. But perhaps it's just a reflection of the 'looking down on those you imagine to be different/beneath you' culture FDM has fostered. There's a review worth reading where an Account Manager caused a trainee to be fired for calling them dude. I mean. These superiority complexes are a deep rooted sign of low self-esteem and value for others. Unfortunately, they are rife across the business. Digest that. I am not a disgruntled employee just someone who believes in speaking up and if one is ostracised for speaking up in employment then platforms like Glassdoor give the little guy an opportunity to voice their opinion. So take this review as you will but it is nothing than my honest experience and an experience shared by countless others. Just consider just over 50% would recommend the company to a friend. If you are looking to get into the tech industry there are plenty of programmes out there doing truly great things. It's better to work a bar job while searching for a good employment scheme or work part-time and learn online and save your dignity in the process then sell out to FDM for a job. Now run!
