Dec 18, 2014
CGI, another consulting company that treats employees as numbers
Anonymous employee
CGI reviews
3.7
72% would recommend to a friend
François Boulanger
77% approve of CEO
60% positive business outlook
CGI has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 17,932 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The CGI employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management & Consulting industry (3.5 stars).
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Reviews by job title
18K reviews
2.0
Dec 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Early on you can get 10% raises every year (although your salary starts low, and this goes away after a period of time) Managers are nice and personable Company is very successful; reliable work
Cons
Limited growth; the company claims you can "pick your career path," but once they get you in a certain skill set they prefer you to stay there Grossly underpay their consultants; will not pay you competitive wages unless you A) ask them repeatedly or B) come in with a new job offer and threaten to leave Structure of company is very isolated; very difficult to make lateral moves into working with different solutions or industries Very "old school" in how it deals with employees; expects 10-15 yrs commitment and doesn't offer clear training opportunities or paths on how to increase skill set/take on more responsibility
4.0
Dec 9, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
For a kid just starting fresh out of school, it's a great and supportive environment to be introduced to the professional world. Most of the workforce is pretty young, and there's a very healthy team culture (At least at the Lebanon office). You're given a lot of flexibility. I was not "thrown to the wolves" when I started, and was given plenty of time and support to learn the ropes. The lower and middle management at the Lebanon office were pretty solid prior to the organizational restructuring. Team leads that were present on-site were helpful, supportive, and understanding. Managers were competent and fair. The share purchase plan is nice. The 401k match is mediocre. Lots of paid holidays, and decent PTO. Unlimited sick leave. Ability to work remote. Good starting salary if you AREN'T a computer programmer. Salary for accountants and business types is pretty competitive. Annual raises are almost guaranteed. Most people get around 3% yearly. Some guys only got 2%. How this is distributed seems pretty arbitrary. There's usually a Christmas Bonus (Profit sharing) to the tune of 800+ dollars. Despite the insistence of some of the other reviewers, the cost of living in the area is quite low. Rent is about average (400-600 for a 2br apt), while property value is ridiculously low by national standards. A lot of really decent homes can be had for around 100k. Just don't be dumb with your money. 45k is quite enough to support you in comfort. Getting fired is an act of congress. During my time at CGI, a few people got laid off, but nobody was fired for performance. This is both a pro (job security), and a con (freeloaders).
Cons
The pay is very low for programmers (Maybe 30% below local market). Programmers and Business Analysts get paid the same starting salary. For a new graduate, it's really not that bad, especially if you live with room mates, and honestly the experience was worth it to me. The healthcare is godawful. The HSA plan CGI uses has a 3500(?) dollar deductible/out of pocket max. 7k for a family. This is devastating if you get sick, or have recurring medical costs. The plan really only pays off financially if you get cancer, or hit by a bus. No prescription coverage. Since a lot of families around here are single income, this is a killer. This was my main drive to leave. Work-life balance was great when I started, but towards the end of my time at CGI I was regularly working 70-80 hour weeks. Despite the Lebanon VA stationed managers being pretty good, they are extremely limited in their authority and don't have the power to actually affect positive change. Lots of bureaucracy. An organizational restructuring took the larger, more generalized teams, and broke them down to maybe a dozen smaller, specialized teams. This forced management to create a bunch more Team Leads for each of the smaller teams. Some of these Team Leads were... highly unfit. In addition, many of these leads were full-time Work-From-Home, or worked in Fairfax. This made them inaccessible at times, unavailable to assist struggling team members, or caused weird political issues since they really only were in touch with us when something went wrong. Their impressions of many team members were badly skewed by this. The people we actually worked closely with on a daily basis weren't given any voice in our annual reviews. The disconnect between superiors and subordinates caused a lot of tension. Despite the abundance of team leads, there isn't really much opportunity to advance. The structure of the company is overall pretty flat, and there's no pay incentive for promotions. Senior consultants get a slightly better 401k and share purchase plan. Because of the issues mentioned above, CGI Federal is becoming a stepping-stone. Very few people I knew there had plans to stay.
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