I could write a book on this but unfortunately there's a 5000-character limit
-Lies in interview:
Like many grads, I missed the recruitment cycle during final year and left uni without a job, applying for every job I could find in finance. Enter JDX Consulting.
Everything about this job is a lie, from the vague job description to the job title itself, the non-existent academy and grad scheme, and the entire field.
The recruiters present this job as management consulting (an incredibly competitive field) with vague references to finance work - in reality you'll be doing financial operations which is the most mundane admin work you can imagine, day-in day-out.
When I later asked HR when we would be doing actual consulting work - you can start 4 years into your time at JDX - Anyone who stays this long deserves a medal and 4 years of their life back. I even doubt they actually do consulting work at all, beyond the salesmen fleecing companies for work.
They also tell you how you will be able to pick what projects you want to work on and travel the world - I didn't meet anyone who experienced this
It's clear that they trick naive grads into the job by selling the job as an international consulting role when it's really admin work in dingy offices
The grad scheme is also complete fiction. There is no training and development, nor qualification. The pay progression scheme is also just for show as discussed later.
Being based in Manchester, in the interview they mentioned how it was their latest branch and how they were lining up loads of projects there and a new office. JDX didn't even have an office within 100 miles of Manchester - these lies continued throughout our project - no deals materialised, no office and anyone remaining made redundant at the end of this project
I feel very sorry for anyone who has turned down a job for JDX
Nothing they say will ever come to pass
-The work:
The work at JDX is the dullest you will ever do. It's all the data entry and admin work that companies don't want to give their own employees (because they would complain or leave). It is work a 12 year old could do and anyone hired by JDX is overqualified, you won't use any of the skills you gained during your degree - the only advantage is that JDX can legitimise their business by saying all their employees have graduate degrees.
You will be shown how to do the task and then repeat this 10 steps process ad infinitum. You won't learn anything beyond 1 or 2 weeks on the job, you're just waiting for the project to end.
The work is very slow paced - many times there was no work for days on end but we were not allowed to go home or read - we were told to go on the "e-learning platform" or pretend to work to keep up appearances in the client office. The "e-learning platform" is a collection of random finance notes copied off Investopedia and makes up 90% of the training you will receive at JDX.
In our project the job was to check customer addresses on google and check that their passports were in date - and repeat every day. Other JDX projects I have heard of are scanning passports and paper filing - again this will be all you do until the project ends - then on to another just like it.
-Compensation discrepancies:
If this wasn't enough to kill your morale, you'll be sat next to someone who started at the same time with the same level of experience, doing the same job but they will have a pay package over £15k more than you. With accommodation and expenses provided selectively to employees and no legitimate explanation given for the disparity.
In a visit HR promised those who currently do not receive accommodation or expenses would be given relocation support if they move to London after the project - this was later withdrawn.
There are also no bonuses or incentives (besides for promotion discussed below) leading to disengagement and a culture of doing the bare minimum
-Management:
Because of the high attrition rate, most managers are promoted because there isn’t anyone else left as everyone talented leaves at first chance. This means you get children with no inexperience in management positions, given no training and lacking basic team management and people skills.
I also didn't get a line manager until 5 months in - she worked in another office so I never met her and when she phoned me for a meeting I had to tell her I'd already quit the company
-Perks:
The perks are non-existent. I believe the holiday is 20 days which is well below the industry standard 25, but even 100 days holiday wouldn't make the job bearable.
The lack of holiday days just means people take the days off as sick days
-Toxic Work Environment:
The culture at JDX is awful. Everything you're promised is forced and artificial.
The famous social aspect is non-existent, you have to organise, and largely pay for them, yourself - all to make your team look good. Socials would be such a small thing for the company to organise and pay for the repair the terrible relationships and atmosphere within the team.
You also won't be treated as an employee by the client you work at - no effort is made to introduce you to the team there, beyond 1 or 2 contacts. Relationships were not developed organically, and JDX pushed for people to network with the management to secure them work (what the sales team should be doing).
Nothing is done for the sake of it. You would be pressured to show face at socials (especially when a manager was visiting), and there would be arguments over who uploads the photos, so they look good on the company Facebook group. Even charity work was lied about - Events which weren't attended were included in newsletters or self-appraisals to get credit.
This fake culture leads to snakes in the grass - several people were out to get each other - reporting each other for underperforming at work and personal grievances, to make themselves look better.
The work, the culture and lack of leadership and incentives leads to disengaged employees.
Any drive and ambition that people joined the company with quickly turned to trundling along doing the minimum work. In addition to this, everyone wants to leave (some from even 2 weeks in) and is openly discussing when they are going to quit and editing CVs, filling out job applications and phoning recruiters during work hours.
Adding to the low morale was the threat of redundancy at any point. Everyone within the team knew that the project wouldn't last 12 months as promised, and that no job in Manchester was being lined up. Senior management refuted this and would not give a definitive date for the end of the project or a guarantee of employment after.
The depressing nature of the repetitive non-thinking work all day every day, combined with the anxiety of not knowing when you will lose your job greatly affected the workplace. There was a very bad atmosphere of low morale and mood in the office - the main break from this was joking with each other if we would still have a job tomorrow. The deteriorating mental health of the team was ignored.
-Disconnect between supervisors/managers and workers:
There was a big disconnect between the supervisors/managers and the workers. The workers were expected to do the majority of the work and then the supervisors would take credit for it in meetings and self-appraisals.
The supervisors would have multiple meetings every day avoiding work and gossiping about workers. They would abuse their tiny amount of power to settle personal grievances - leading to flexitime being removed for a couple of employees ironically deemed to be not working hard enough and even to new starters being fired. This also illustrates the lack of trust for the people doing the brunt of the work, as the amount of work done steeply declines at every level of management.
Managers not only have no management experience, but often no experience in the task itself. Do not expect supervisors to teach you how to perform the work or help with issues as they won't have ever done it themselves.
As a result, they won't understand the cause of any delays.
-Extreme micromanagement:
If you have a day of delays or tough cases, you can expect a meeting about underperformance and each time a target is missed, they resort to introduce more micromanagement (e.g. reducing toilet breaks) rather than address the horrible work atmosphere which causes people to be disengaged and miss their arbitrary targets.
Micromanagement will be enforced selectively, with those popular with the supervisors getting away with next to no work, and those less liked, closely monitored and scrutinised at every opportunity.
-Bootlicking & Progression:
Higher management won't know who you are - there will be a select few managers or supervisors who go out of their way to keep contact with them and take credit for your work. Despite the promise of 6 monthly appraisals and a meritocratic structure, you won't get any recognition for the work you do, your background or skills. The only way to the top is by brown-nosing senior management, constant self-promotion, and waiting long enough.
The hiring policy is also extremely geared towards attractive girls, so expect this favouritism to continue after the recruitment stage. Promotions and the best placements (if there are any) will be given to the director’s favourites.
The pay progression scheme was made up to combat criticism of cronyism, however, it is all for show. It is bent at will, including a friend of the director receiving a promotion 6 months early, and a promised pay rise being ignored for 10 employees. Employees are encouraged to find work for the business - if you have connections in high places, you will get favourable treatment - promotions, pay rises, expenses.
When on client site you are isolated from JDX both socially and professionally - there will be no HR on site so any complaints about mistreatment by managers, grievances about pay or concerns about redundancy have to be discussed by email or phone.
Despite massive issues in my team due to uncertainty about redundancy and pay issues lasting months, there were only 2 token visits by HR the entire time. A session with the new head of HR (possibly the only skilled professional at the company) was organised which consisted of 2 hours of questions and venting from our team to which he had no answers because he had only joined the week before - this just illustrates the staff turnover.
-"Good experience":
A common thing you will hear is that JDX offers good experience - some big names in finance on your CV. As a result, a lot of people plan to stay for a couple of years and either internalise to a client company or use the experience to springboard them into a senior position at a top firm.
You will also gain no meaningful qualifications - they give you an exam to legitimise the grad scheme - in reality it's a multiple-choice test made by your peers
This is another fallacy. JDX is a joke within the industry (and even at the firm we were working at). In reality, your years (or more likely months) of admin work at JDX will count for next to nothing.
Interviewing after leaving, companies had almost zero interest in the work I was doing at this "big name" client I had on my CV and were more interested in my degree and charity work.
If you're lucky, the interviewer won't have heard of JDX, if they have, you will probably want to remove it from your CV. If you want valuable experience, then join a legitimate grad scheme. This isn't your way into Goldman Sachs or Deloitte, if you want to work there then apply for their grad scheme.
No one is ever going from freelance admin assistant at Goldman to front desk, or management consulting at even a boutique firm.
Every day you spend at JDX is putting you further away from the job you really want.
-No vision:
There is no value in the work that you do, and the company has no vision - everyone is only interested in their own goals and don't care if the company is successful or not.
Most people there don't even know what the company does - financial operations, not management consulting.
-Attrition:
JDX is a revolving door. It's got the highest staff turnover rate I've ever seen, with few lasting more than 6 months - 1 year, and I couldn't find anyone who’d been there more than 2 years. At our first social, the first question everyone would ask is when you're planning on leaving. The attrition rate would be even higher, if the experience were worth anything - recruiters won't want to touch you.
There's extensive hiring at all levels to compensate for everyone leaving - this leads to people with no experience in management positions. This desperation leads to hiring anyone with a degree means no vetting of character at interview and a number of bad apples and egomaniacs in the company. These bigmouth egomaniacs are then promoted to fill the gap left by all the managers leaving the company.
Despite this high turnover, management make no effort to retain employees (people who have committed their time and future to the job) and return the investment through skills development and workshops. During my time I had one seminar which was a leadership seminar we were forced to stay after work for which covers the same content as Year 7 Citizenship.
Anyone who does leave for a better job (you couldn't find a worse one) is treated as a traitor by management as if it was a personal attack.
-More lies & Uncertainty:
The lies continued all throughout my time at JDX. Given false dates for the completion of the project (which changed every time you asked), guarantees of employment after the project.
In the end the few loyal employees, who trusted them and hadn't jumped ship already, were abandoned and made redundant after months of promises - some of whom had signed new leases on their flats.