During my nearly 20 years as a developer, I have worked many places. I have been a permanent employee and also a consultant. I have always liked consulting because it not only gives me the opportunity to stay on top of technology, but it also has the benefit of a change in scenery. There is no perfect assignment from heaven; but with consulting you can be assured that whatever you don't like about an assignment, it will end and you will go on to something new.
Right now, Sogeti is the best consulting company in Columbus, OH. They have benefits that simply cannot be touched:
* Free health insurance. It is a high deductible HSA. If you are not sick that often, then you really make out. The HSA is all pre-tax and it gains interest like a savings account.
* Free Vision and Dental
* 401K with 6% dollar for dollar match, plus a 5% profit sharing bonus. Essentially if you put in 6% into your 401K you are getting 17% in. That is just crazy awesome.
* The 401K mutual funds to pick from are actually very good at Sogeti. I have been at some places where the mutual fund performance is so poor, the employees put all their contributions into bonds.
* Three weeks of vacation to start plus seven paid holidays.
* Individual Bonus Program. At other companies, I have done many technical interviews in the past, attended user groups, and trainings with not a dime coming from it. Sogeti has a point system where activities are tracked. Surprisingly I have only been at Sogeti since May and I am on track for getting a $2500 bonus.
* Life Insurance equal to 2x salary
* Short Term Disability
* Long Term Disability
* Company Laptop. It is a beefy laptop too with a Core I7 with 8GB of memory.
* $10,000 Tuition Reimbursement
* 4,000 e-courses and 20,000 e-books
* MSDN Universal Subscription (That is worth 10,000 with the Visual Studio architect that is included)
The first company that I worked for in Columbus went bankrupt around a year after I started. There were 120 people laid off in one day. Ever since then I am ultra sensitive about how my employer is doing financially. In fact they call me the Canary; as in, when the Canary gets out of the coal mine, you had better get out right now. I can't reveal any financials for Sogeti, but I can say Sogeti is growing during the recession. They are impressively beating the financial goals they have set. That coupled with the fact that Sogeti is all over the world gives it inherent diversification and stability.
There are many other things that Sogeti has going for it that makes it very attractive:
* Positive culture. Everyone has each others back from the President down to the consultant level.
* Solution projects are favored over Staff Augmentation. Sogeti's bread and butter is Solutions work, not Staff Augmentation. This equals more exciting opportunities and higher bill rates. The higher bill rate translates into higher salaries compared to other consulting companies in Columbus.
* Recognition for hard work and overcoming challenges. Frankly I have been pleasantly surprised at the positive feedback that our team has received. I have been on great teams before at other companies and have received no feedback.
The Canary is happy. In fact, when recruiters from other companies call me, I say "No thanks, I am going to stay with Sogeti for the next 20 years."
Contact me at greg.finzer at us.sogeti.com if you are interested in coming on board with Sogeti
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hi, I actually stumbled on your blog post and wanted to follow up a bit on your post. I was laid off a few days back and recently started looking in the job market. I have been offered a jr. level position at Sogeti in texas and looked on various company review sites like glass door and career bliss. I hear mixed reviews about being "on the bench" which has me a bit concerned. I am only 3-4 years out of college so I am by no means a Sr. level developer, but some self taught and through my brief work experience. What interested me in Sogeti was the opportunity to learn and really get to do different work and be around other developers that I could soak up some valuable experience from. It would be great to hear some of your feedback on the above issues. Thanks!
There is good news. Everyone hired on at Sogeti as a consultant is salaried. You are paid while you are in between assignments the same as if you are on assignment. I wouldn't worry too much about being off assignment. There is a huge demand for IT Consultants. Your time on the bench will be short, if at all. Right now Sogeti Columbus has 10 immediate openings and we could place 10 more after that. I would take the position. Consulting is like working for many companies. It is less stress knowing that there will always be somewhere to go to.
Post a Comment