Pros
This review is specific to the MSG, and observations of ISG. * All of the managers I have ever had to interact with within MSG/ISG have been intelligent, thoughtful, and passionate about what they do. I have never felt that they never understood or cared about a problem that was presented to them. * Pay is competitive for a mid-market MSP and the benefits get the job done * The workplace culture is overall very team orientated and supportive. Obviously, there is no such thing as a workplace without some friction, but management does truly seem to care about inclusivity, team building, and respect. I've seen this demonstrated many times through action and not just words like some companies. * Building on that, if you need help, chances are someone in the company is an expert in the topic you need help with, and everyone is happy to offer their assistance when asked. * A huge amount of holidays + the last week of the year between December and New Year. The firm even has a floating holiday for some time in the middle of the year. * You should never be bored and you will always be presented with new problems. There are always opportunities to be challenged or learn something new. * Yearly reviews that include reasonable COLA and market-influenced compensation changes. * You receive a career counselor to help advise you on the next steps you should be taking to resolve problems and create goals at work related to your position or future at the company/in general. This individual is not your manager and they can be a great resource to figure out where to go next. * Compensated certifications on passes
Cons
* The firm always seems to be in a hiring crunch and has been since I was hired. MSG never seems to have enough people and replacement of people that leave takes forever, or it feels like it never happens. The resulting shortages place high amounts of stress on teams to complete the same or more work. This is one of the few prominent cons I can think of but it is very impactful and prevalent. * We have a lot of administrative overhead time. The concept of needing to record and categorize your non-billable time in 15-minute blocks is just a little bit ridiculous for an MSP. Many positions can't even control how much non-billable time they have. This is a requirement of the parent company and I'm sure there are some useful metrics to be had, so this isn't going to change, but it is often a source of anxiety when it's a slow day. At the very least, it costs you at least 60 hours a year (~10-15min * 270 days) that you could've used to do something else. Ticket correction also sometimes takes forever. Managing email takes forever. * The amount of email that the average MSG employee receives is astronomical and nearly impossible to parse without the liberal use of Outlook rules. Surely there must be a better way for a lot of our email communication or limiting the scope of who receives what emails. I've worked at other MSPs and it's literally 7x as much email here as what I've seen elsewhere. * You need to be aware of and get used to navigating 3+ different locations for documentation and where to find what specific information. We're working on this, but it's a little much right now and leads to people doing things they shouldn't because they couldn't find the relevant documentation when they needed it. Overall, BDO Digital's pros outweigh the cons enough that even if I received a mildly higher compensation offer from somewhere else I would have to seriously consider the risks of taking a job that may have a worse culture. If the COLA and market compensation adjustments continue and the hiring issue gets fixed, I could easily see myself here for 10+ years.
