Vantaggi
-The work is typically really easy and subsequently means you never need to work particularly hard -There are a handful of interesting projects if you're lucky enough to get on one -Decent set of clients (even if most of the work done there is just BA/PM stuff) -Some parts of the wider BIP Group do some cool stuff which you can try and get exposure to If you're after a place to work an easy 9-5 from home then this is the place for that
Svantaggi
-Wages way below average. The company say they benchmark against other firms but naturally don't tell you what firms they are. Pay splines aren't published either. It's really easy to move firm and do exactly the same role and get a nice pay bump. -The day-rates are pretty low (partly due to MSAs with biggest clients which stop us increasing them), so naturally wages aren't that high but this also embeds the reputation within clients of being a cheap BA/PM provider. It's then very hard to convert the leads in big clients to sell more strategic, fixed-price work as people don't think BIP can do that. -Majority of the work is just BA/PM roles where people will be resourced irrespective of skill set / career ambitions and then left until they get fed up and leave. -Project mobility is basically non-existent. -Total lack of investment in people and training. There are some internal training courses which are pretty rubbish and in 2023 the training budget for external training and certifications was £0. -Half of the management board are totally AWOL and when they do appear, they are impressively opaque about what is going on. -No proper office; there are too rooms in London but only selected staff have passes so you can't go in before 8:30 anyway. The rooms are so loud that you can't take calls making the space redundant for most people. -No defined career paths. It's hard to know how to progress as there are some staff in senior positions who are incompetent but more junior staff who are actually talented. The career review process is also abysmal. -The firm is trying to place themselves as Data/AI/Cloud specialists which is problematic because of the points above but also only a handful of partners actually understand or can sell this. To add to this, any sensible client after this kind of work would go with Big 4, Accenture, BBM or a specialist data consulting house. There's very little room in the market for this kind of approach and subsequently the firm has to resort to bodyshopping roles to keep the lights on. -Recruitment is really bad -Management publicly don't acknowledge what the firm is and subsequently set pretty ridiculous ambitions. The firm is aiming to become an elite consultancy which is never going to happen given where the firm is now. -The firm can't even figure out whether they want to be called BIP or Bip.
