I worked at Alfa full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Great working envrionment
Good benefits
Management is very talented
Very organized and structured company
Cons
https://www.glassdoor.com
- Work can be very boring and monotonous
You need to be lucky to have a good line manager, otherwise your career progression migth be slow
Sometimes company processes are more important than common sense
Advice to Management
Continue to shift the company towards being more a software house and less a consultancy company
Don't loose the "culture"
I worked at Alfa part-time (More than 3 years) Pros - First, the company rebranded to 'Alfa' from CHP Consulting. To get a fuller list of information make sure to search for 'CHP Consulting' also! - Great benefits including the classicly-corporate bonus scheme - Private healthcare (who needs the NHS anyway) - Ability to take sabbatical - Worldwide travel insurance for those sabbaticals - Good pay for graduates - Can get seconded overseas (USA most likely) meaning rent is payed for meaning more effective pay (be aware that as Alfa moves further towards the software house structure it's possible this'll become less likely) - Some genuinely amazing and supportive people work at this company (con: not likely these people will be your line manager) - Hackathon is a fantasticly enriching and fun event and is not just focussed on the techie (as it's name might suggest) - Many social events (brilliant for the socialite) - Recently lost the suit dress code (who trusts a guy in a suit these days anyway) -Work-life balance is truly fantastic here! - Applicants wishing to persue management consultancy should get on the v4 track. Cons - Your grade seems to mean very little in some circumstances and a great deal in others, both end up being to the employers benefit should they choose - Boys club at the top (which is pretty cringe in 2017) - Onionification justifies some management positions that, in my opinion, don't hold people with competent management or statistical analysis skills - Job is quite repetitive not requiring too much thought (this is only bad if you want to expand your knowledge) - Only a very small team get to work on any greenfield projects - Can realistically be called a feature factory (con in my eyes, your mileage may vary) - PDP (personal development plan) process is broken and leads to much top-down abuse of power and position, in effect: if you're mates with your line manager (reiterate boys club) you'll have a good time - If you're quiet, you wont get noticed -Social events largly consist of drinking alcohol (reiterate boys club). If you're not a drinker or are a veggie, you might have a tough time - Though you work in a team, there's no sense of teamwork as everyone just works on their own assigned task with little to no overlap - Some grads are recruited to v4 (not v5), this track, while the fastest way to the top for the corporate climbers, should be accepted with caution. If you wish to learn about modern technology, this track uses older hardware and software and won't afford you as much transferrability in your post-Alfa technical life. Advice to Management In terms of culture: take a look at the times and move with them a bit faster than you do. In terms of management: for the everyday employee, your stream leads are the most critical people in the entire company, make sure you have legitimately competent people (not just silver tongues, your mates, or whoever was convenient to put in that position) working in these roles.