- The academy is like being in school again. It doesn't really feel like you're training for a proper job. A typical day is essentially going to lessons from 9-5 with delegated break and lunch times. Some of the staff also treat you like you're a clueless child.
- 14-week Software Developer stream is unpaid, with no guarantee of getting a placement with their clients.
- Little to no placements available during most of the year. They may tell you that you may be placed before your training finishes but I can assure you this is not the case with most people.
- If you have completed your training (or 'signed-off') but don't have a placement you are forced to still come into the academy everyday for the next 3 months or face paying up to £20,000 in training expenses. This essentially involves just sitting around the academy and waiting for emails to come through regarding potential roles. If there are no roles going, you're stuck. Simple as.
- Poor communication between trainees and Account Managers (the people who put you forward for roles with clients). After having an interview, if you don't get the job then the A/C manager will not tell you. In most cases A/C Managers do not even reply to emails thus making it harder to find a placement.
- To add to the previous point, Account Managers will put you forward for roles without letting you know before hand. Then they will tell you they have set up an interview for the following day, leaving no time to properly prepare. This seems to be a common practice here. If you don't want to be geographically flexible around the UK, then you may want to look elsewhere.
- Quite often roles that you go for can be dropped by the client at any time. Even if you sign a contract the client can still turnaround and decide to not take you on. So job-security is still a major let down here.
- Most of the clients FDM have are financial or insurance companies. If these industries do not interest you, again I highly suggest looking elsewhere.
- The annual income after starting a placement is not as good as other graduate schemes.
