It's who you know, not what you know in the main.
Pros
I've worked at Computacenter for nearly 10 years now. I started at the bottom, and have worked myself up to a fairly decent position, on a decent salary and package. As with any company there's a mix of diverse people. There are people who might be technically aware but have no interpersonal skills, those that have the interpersonal skills but no technical knowledge, those that have a good mix of both, and then those that are just plain useless. I'm happy to report that, in my case at least, most of the people I've worked with during my time here, have been pleasant, decent people, in some cases they've ended up being my best friends. You do have a good opportunity to progress, but it's certainly a case of who you know at CC. If you're friendly with the right people, you'll get helped along your journey into middle management, if you just get your head down and hope people will notice, then good luck! This section is supposed to be positive, so I'll add, in my case, I like the bulk of the people I work with, I have clear progression, I'm paid well and have good work/home flexibility.
Cons
I respect what others have said about 'BT rejects' and lack of progression, because in fairness to them, they're right. However, one thing I've realised about Computacenter, is that as it's such a large and diverse company, not everyone gets to see the other areas of the business. So, some areas like the Projects Practice sounds like an awful place to work, and I have many friends in that division who have been overworked, underpaid and treated like machines by incompetent resourcing managers. That said, I personally have worked for some really great, forward thinking people and have progressed as a result, but I don't doubt that it's more the luck of the draw than a company wide initiative, but it does anger me that on face value, incompetence is rewarded if you know the right people, and like I've said, if you work hard but keep quiet about it, you'll can get ignored/used. The statement about BT is also true, the growth of CC's infrastructure services has led them to taking on people with a lot of BT experience, this would be great if BT were a forward thinking, market leading company in that area, but in my experience they aren't, they're not the worst, but they generally throw money and people at issues in the hope they get resolved. This is what's starting to happen at CC, overpaid, underskilled people are coming in, and in my view, changing the culture for the worse. As a consultant I get to work across a broad spectrum of divisions of CC, and I'd have to say that many of the management team I interact with are of varying quality. Some are great people, and a credit to themselves, but I'd say that the scales are tipping the other way at present, with a lot of weak/stubborn or just plain rubbish people in jobs they shouldn't be in, but have either fluked it or again, just know the right people. Other issues present themselves around the ethos behind areas of the company, there's a big drive for standardisation of services, but that drive, quite frankly, appears to be nothing but talk. Many of the management team don't fully understand what standardisation is, or how it can be achieved, if the management understood their own business better, maybe they might see that. Telling people to standardise while selling non-standard services do not go hand in hand. As someone else mentioned, the benefits scheme is pretty woeful. I too hate the car scheme, which is geared towards placing all the risk at the employee's door, you're pretty much forced into it too. Either you take the car scheme or they give you less than half that you'd get as a cash allowance. If you want to leave you have to pay trade up, which can equate to thousands of pounds! The choice of cars ins't great, and you're tied in for 4 years if you do opt in. Comparing the benefits package to other organisations I'd say they come through as less than average, things like healthcare, dental work and child care are optional, but you pay a discounted rate through a preferred supplier, rather than it being in addition to your salary.
