Pros
They employ anyone and everyone they possibly can
Cons
FDM sees you as a resource to exploit for private capital gain. If you are considering applying for the graduate program at FDM, please reconsider. I joined the program in 2018 after graduating with a degree in Computer Science a few months prior. FDM lead their advertising with false claims and misleading promises: They tell you that you will get bespoke training in industry-relevant technologies, when in fact your training is a bare-bones crash-course which will give you no adequate preparation for a real working environment. They tell you that you will have the opportunity to gain experience with some top employers in the UK, whereas in fact you will be sent where the company deems necessary with no regard for your personal or professional life, and you will remain there until instructed otherwise. Worst of all, once you walk through those shiny doors at any FDM office, you cannot leave them. Upon starting the training course, on day one you will be instructed to sign a "Training Agreement" which is a legally binding document stating that you cannot cease the training unless you pay a £20,000 fine. This course is designed to last between 12 and 16 weeks, within which time you will be expected to work 8.5 hours a day with ZERO pay (yes really). Once you have completed this training, you will be assigned a role to interview for, regardless of your personal feelings towards the role. If they have a position available with a client whom you disagree with ethically, with whom you will have to relocate over 500 miles, with whom you will gain no valuable experience whatsoever, you will attend the interview and perform well, under threat of a £20,000 fine for non-compliance. Should you be successful in your interview, you start on Monday. In my case, I was instructed to move my entire livelihood 350 miles away within 3 days. This included finding accommodation for an unspecified length of time, arranging travel, and researching the area all with zero assistance from FDM. As a bonus, you are also not allowed to see your contract of employment until you have already moved to your designated location and have arrived on the client site. Yes you read that right, your contract of employment, which binds you in for 2 entire years under penalty of a £20,000 fine, is withheld from you until after you have already started, leaving you in a position in which you cannot say no. Once you walk through those shiny FDM doors, there is no leaving them. My time with FDM was personally traumatic, and I am left emotionally scarred by my time under their thumb. I was thrust into a situation where I was being held against my will, in a city so far away from friends and family that I had no support network, and this led me to try to take my own life on two separate occasions. Despite my constant complaints and pleading with FDM, I was never given any semblance of emotion, dignity, or respect and constantly treated as a number on a spreadsheet to make money out of. FDM claims to have an inclusive culture and their press image is a carefully doctored and clean look, but once you pass that beyond that veil you realise that FDM's image is nothing but smoke and mirrors for an egregious capitalistic meat grinder churning through young hopeful professionals with no regard for those they claim to be providing career ascensions. Please, if you are considering joining FDM, look elsewhere. I say this in the hope that I can prevent even one person making the same mistake I did.
