To better understand the cons you need a little context. For many years working for Andersen was pretty much restricted to family and friends of people who already worked there. It was essentially a generational closed shop. During this period the perks and benefits flowed freely in the form of massive bonuses, profit shares and stock in the company. Consequently, those people stuck around and today the IT department is heavily populated with people who have never worked anywhere else and/or have been at Andersen for 20 to 30+ years. It’s also an open secret that it’s practically impossible to get fired once you’ve become ‘part of the furniture’, despite your obvious lack of professionalism and competence in any given role. All that happens is you’re moved to a different role in a never ending game of merry-go-round until you retire. The effect is to create a culture of self-righteous entitlement and complacency.
Some years ago the reins were loosened and ‘outsiders’ were allowed into the IT work force. Therein lies the problem. Newer IT professionals with current skills, knowledge and experience clash with the ‘old school’ dinosaurs. The dinosaurs say they want new and fresh ideas, are open to modernization and improvement, but they’re not. They want things to stay the same. Worse than their blatant dishonesty is their insulting, abusive and condescending behavior directed at anyone who dares to challenge the status quo. They do this with impunity, safe in the knowledge they won’t be written up or fired because management are their buddies and are part of the same ‘old boys network’. It is absolutely astounding and disgusting in equal measure. I literally have never seen or experienced anything quite so toxic or perverted in my entire career.
Andersen is an IT backwater. It’s where IT careers go to die. IT management try to defend this on the basis it’s a manufacturing company and thus suffers a greater degree of exposure to the trials and tribulations of the market place. Poppycock! That doesn’t explain running ancient and unsupportable hardware, software that’s many years out of date or blindly following practices which the IT industry moved away from decades ago. They place great emphasis on spending hardly any money on IT. It’s like a badge of honor to these people because it perpetuates the tight fistedness and maintains the status quo the senior execs want to see. You have to understand that at Andersen, IT is seen as overhead. It’s an evil expense that ought to be avoided or reduced at all costs. The same execs appear to not understand it’s actually IT which facilitates business and supports growth rather than inhibits it. Unless of course it’s in a Gartner report. They swallow those things hook, line and sinker. It’s actually quite sad to witness a company’s IT strategy (or a lack thereof) be formed on the basis of the vagaries of a Gartner editor who cannot possibly know anything about Andersen, what it does or how it does it. Very sad. Still, it’s easier than thinking for yourself!
Life within IT at Andersen really only fits two categories of people. Interns/college leavers/early career people or people who have given up on their careers and are ready to just settle. The former group won’t know any better so won’t question how bad it is. The latter group most likely will know how bad it is, but won’t have the inclination to do anything about it. For everyone else who has worked hard to develop their IT specialty, forget about it. After being lied to by omission at the interview, your time at Andersen will go through three phases.
Phase 1 is the honeymoon phase. You will identify what’s wrong within your area of specialty and will plan and strategize how to fix, change and improve it. In other words, do what you think you’re being paid for. You will get smiles, nods of appreciation and pats on the back as management smugly reflects on how clever they think they are for hiring you. Phase 2 is the push back phase. This is where you’ll discover few to none of your ideas will be implemented because there’s no budget for it, it’s always been done that way or one or more of the dinosaurs doesn’t like it or you because you’ve had the audacity to point out how antiquated, non-compliant or just plain wrong things are. Phase 3 is the blame phase. Frustrated at not being able to make any progress and having witnessed the daily evaporation of your skill set through a lack of use, you’ll eventually be blamed for not fitting in. That’s right, YOU are the problem! You’re not getting along with the dinosaurs (the same ones who have insulted and berated you), you’re not being supportive, you’re not a team player, etc. Management don’t seem to realize it’s the people who do speak up and do want to change and improve things are actually the ones who care. However, it’s more important at Andersen to get along and be everyone’s friend than it is to be really good at what you do. Eventually you’ll leave only to be replaced by the next wide eyed innocent who will be their next victim.
My words are not the bitter ramblings of someone who was fired. They are my objective observations of what I and others experienced. I left of my own accord and at a time which was both right and convenient for me. I have no axe to grind other than to warn people about what they’re getting into. Bottom line is, if you’re in either of the two categories mentioned earlier, you’ll probably do fine at Andersen. However, if you’re really good at what you do and care passionately about your IT career, don’t work there. You’ll regret it. You have been warned.
