BT Reviews

Former Employee – worked at BT full-time

Pros – A handful of great leaders and good people.

Cons – Very limited career prospects, very slow processes.

Advice to Senior Management – Talent management, talent management, talent management. Replace BT Retail HR, starting from top.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – some potential still to move around the business for personal development. Very knowledgeable colleagues who tend to support one another very well.

Cons – bullying and pressure to achieve managed exit targets seen as most important part of leadership roles. Salaries not competitive. The bureaucracy to get things done is draining despite constant comms around making things simpler.

Advice to Senior Management – You are creating an oppressive and stifling place to work. Stop the bullying and trust your managers and people to do the right things.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at BT as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Good lifestyle, decent work times, great city, brand name, experience working in a large company

Cons – Bad employee management, fragmented teams, extremely bureaucratic, no sense of direction from managers, managers unavailable for learning opps, company closed for initiative - no initiative is encouraged., takes to have technology fixed (strange, since they are a telecom company)!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at BT full-time for more than a year

Pros – Given opportunities to stretch yourself, operate at significant scale.

Cons – Problems inherent in very large organisations - communication and bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management – Rapid pace of different initiatives can lead to a lack of engagement with staff.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Big company with a lot of change.
Great if you are based in London area.

Cons – Real disconnect between high level strategy & implementation on ground.
Performance management is a real hot topic and is generally applied inconsistently around the business with little regard to objectives.
Little in way of career management other than what you make for yourself.

Advice to Senior Management – Do more back to floor visits & actually listen/act.

Former Employee – worked at BT part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – People are really friendly, relaxed atmosphere, flexible working possible, central London location. Interesting time to work for the company, as it continues it's post privatisation transition and branches out into new ventures e.g. TV.

Cons – Company has been cutting perks, though you could argue it is becoming more efficient... I found my line manager could have been a bit better at communicating and giving me feedback.

Advice to Senior Management – Perhaps improve the training and feedback a little

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at BT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – It's a relatively stable company and you are very unlikely to get laid off. The benefits are not bad although the salaries aren't the greatest. Work-life balance varies hugely depending on which part of the company you work in. It's a unionised company so joining has significant benefits.

Cons – The pay is not that competitive in some positions and it's not clear how pay decisions are made. BT is extremely bureaucratic and decisions can take a long time. If a customer needs anything non-standard it's a real struggle to get things done. Again there is huge variety in the way different parts of the company work so there is probably something for everyone in BT, your experience will depend hugely on where you end up.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop fiddling unless you know exactly what the impact of changes will be. Change for the sake of change is too often harmful.

Former Employee – worked at BT full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – I got a good amount of training, and working there does look good on a CV

Cons – Where do I start, common sense has completely gone out of the window in the past 3-4 years, so many things in the way of getting the job done - paperwork, stats and bureaucracy are far more important. Moving on to another job internally isn't as easy as it sounds, your manager can easily put a stop to that if he doesn't like you. And then you've raised your head above the parapet and the bullying starts. Work life balance, you would think a big company like this would support you and care, but instead you are expected to work all hours at little to no notice, and no sort of thanks is ever given. No chance of getting annual leave over summer, christmas, etc - its a struggle enough to even get a full week off. I enjoyed the job I did, the people I worked with, but the crap that came with the job was not worth it. This company had me off with stress twice and I'm only in my early 20s, so beware.

Advice to Senior Management – Sack all of HR, the stupid un-needed layers of management, and try and focus on THE JOB instead of bullying staff out of the door

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at BT full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Tries to do the best for it's people and ensure people are in the right roles through appropriate learning and development. Very good employee communications. Starting to be more adventurous in it's concept to marketing - and getting into TV.

Cons – Difficult to change 'job for life' culture amongst older employees and doesn't fulfill promise or exploit potential of it's graduates as well as it could. It's like five or six companies under one banner, each with their own culture and approach.

Advice to Senior Management – Needs to acccelerate reduction in employees, perhaps offering more packages. Too many people in limbo (doing the work of two or three people) who are suffering stress due to workload or uncertainty.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BT full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good pay & benefits, plenty of variety of work areas and locations.

Cons – Work/life balance in some areas

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company