Reply to: BT Cardiff

[vadhert]

BT was my first ever contract.

18 x 3 month extensions.

Pre IR35 of course.

[stek]

I think you will find I have multiple personal friends who have done just this. I am not repeating anything second hand from any boards. First hand knowledge of their details.

Yeah, right.

[CoolCat]

I think you'll find this is largely heresay, I'm an avid participator on immigrationboards.com suggest you pop along and have a read.

I think you will find I have multiple personal friends who have done just this. I am not repeating anything second hand from any boards. First hand knowledge of their details.

[SueEllen]

At least you'll be in Wales :-)

Every cloud has a lead lining.

[stek]

In theory not in practise. For one if you "started on the journey to residency" before then you can still apply, also if a couple of Indian nationals here, one on ICT visa other here as their spouse, have a child in this country then not only is all the healthcare free then they will never be kicked out. Having a child in this country while working here is pretty much a guaranteed route of permanent entry. The rules are not "supposed" to be like that, but the way they are interpreted in practise allows this. And many other exceptions are made.

I think you'll find this is largely heresay, I'm an avid participator on immigrationboards.com suggest you pop along and have a read.

[CoolCat]

Used to be a permie there in Cardiff a long time ago.

I took voluntary redundancy ( the place wasn't long privatised, riddled with people unwilling to change / looking forward to retiring within a few years - so any younger team with people who had a clue were looked down on for actually hitting deadlines ). The VR was fun - they'd committed to stock market to reduce manager numbers. Devs were on the manager track so hey presto - they reduced headcount in the teams on a percentage basis per team, so the level of s*it / good was retained.

Internal client asked who would replace me. Manager stood up and replied "Oh, we've got two from Mahindra coming over". Thankfully I've never felt the need to keep in touch with people from there.

When I was there everyone in my division was repeatedly offered VR. The terms were very good indeed. Obviously, on average, the better people left and the rubbish people tended to stay. This has been rippling for on for years. Some people didn't want VR simply because they were allowed to "work at home" and do nothing but attend a few con calls per week, good pay for doing almost nothing, an unbeatable career.

[CoolCat]

T2 ICT doesn't lead to ILR or BC since 2012...

In theory not in practise. For one if you "started on the journey to residency" before then you can still apply, also if a couple of Indian nationals here, one on ICT visa other here as their spouse, have a child in this country then not only is all the healthcare free then they will never be kicked out. Having a child in this country while working here is pretty much a guaranteed route of permanent entry. The rules are not "supposed" to be like that, but the way they are interpreted in practise allows this. And many other exceptions are made.

[psychocandy]

At least you'll be in Wales :-)

[perplexed]

BT also stand for "Bangalore Telecom" as they were the first and biggest user of massed import of cheap staff from India on intra company transfer visas for their outsourcers, and many of these have been here so long they have indefinite leave to be here or even British passports. So the whole of IT is dominated by Indian staff. And much of the work is done (badly) offshore.

Used to be a permie there in Cardiff a long time ago.

I took voluntary redundancy ( the place wasn't long privatised, riddled with people unwilling to change / looking forward to retiring within a few years - so any younger team with people who had a clue were looked down on for actually hitting deadlines ). The VR was fun - they'd committed to stock market to reduce manager numbers. Devs were on the manager track so hey presto - they reduced headcount in the teams on a percentage basis per team, so the level of s*it / good was retained.

Internal client asked who would replace me. Manager stood up and replied "Oh, we've got two from Mahindra coming over". Thankfully I've never felt the need to keep in touch with people from there.

[DaveB]

A tentative here as I'm on 3 strikes & you're out & I've already had 2 misses :

I've heard not particularly positive things about BT before, ie get someone in for a short term solution until they can get a Bob in to do the work.

Anyone had any experience with BT in Cardiff?

Depends which bit, like any big company.

I've done a couple of stints with them, although not in Cardiff. On the dev side things are as others have said above. If you get into some of the more specialised areas of the business like Health, or get to work with some of the smaller specialist teams like their security people they can be good. Lots of flexible working - last gig was 100% home based - limited amounts of management bulltulip etc.

[filthy1980]

BT is a joke.


Rant over

not a fan then?

having worked for Global Services a fair bit and with the missus being a permie there, I would probably concur with most of this

they just don't know how to do IT

[Big Blue Plymouth]

Tentative bananas don't exist.

I'll tell you what mate, in the current climate any glimmer of hope is worth a banana so stuff it....

[stek]

T2 ICT doesn't lead to ILR or BC since 2012...

[CoolCat]

BT is a joke.

BT stands for "Bring Twenty" (to the meeting) by which people mean you will find yourself in endless meetings and con calls where there at least 20 people attending of which only 2 or 3 know anything at all about the subject of the meeting. Lots of people at BT make a career out of going from meeting to meeting and filling their diary while delivering little.

BT also stand for "Bangalore Telecom" as they were the first and biggest user of massed import of cheap staff from India on intra company transfer visas for their outsourcers, and many of these have been here so long they have indefinite leave to be here or even British passports. So the whole of IT is dominated by Indian staff. And much of the work is done (badly) offshore.

Stuff is outsourced randomly and badly, the laptops are locked down so that anyone working alone in a hotel can have real problems just doing simple stuff.

It is also a company where the size of the legacy pension fund (recent starters don't get to join it) is so big that the pension fund itself is the dominant business and the phones are an incidental side business.

Was ruined by Al Noor Ramji and his mass sacking of Brits and replacing them with cheaper Indian nationals, and his nonsense use of "Agile" (the methodology) even in the most inappropriate places turning BT into one of the least agile (business sense of the word and not the methodology) places on the planet.

Incidentally Al Noor is off in Prudential now I think with the same old crap been sold to the board (ie Agile and Indian outsourcing) so that place is going to go through some hell and come out truly crap.

BT are a shambles.

But it is an easy place to hide. Lots of people "work at home" aka do nothing except attend a few con calls per week, and manage to get away with it. Very easy to stay there even if you are really crap.

Too big, needs splitting up, and needs some proper commercial dynamics.

Rant over

[VillageContractor]

you'll get bored, be surrounded by idiots, and be there for a good length (they don't get rid of people).
That's BT generally. No idea about Cardiff but I can't imagine it's different.

Judging by BBP's recent history, this sounds like an ideal role