Yes I did exactly this. Didn't like it. In fact I know a few people in this sector and they are all miserable or have no life and are mostly absolutely knackered (bed at 9pm, 35 minutes after getting in from work, anyone?).
Really hard but not interesting work (meetings scheduled at 7am you HAVE to attend, and another at 7:45PM you have to attend - just so they know you're there). Everyone virtually works in silence (literally no exaggeration non-work talk is about 25 seconds per day, and as lame as 'So, what did you get up to over the weekend' - 'Took the kid to Legoland' - 'Oh, nice?' - 'Yea it's OK'. Then that's it total silence work time for the rest of the day apart from meetings which again is all 100% work and don't you dare even say a single non-work word. Oh and of course meetings are 'public humiliation time' for anyone that got anything wrong .. hoorah
)
VERY process driven and VERY VERY slow to achieve change (one typo in front end screen? Let's have 14 people all at £600 per day have a 2 hour meeting to discuss the risk of fixing it, then an 18 hour SDLC).
People are too busy to bother ever having a laugh really, oh apart from Thursday nights (not Friday) when a lot of them get smashed but even then they are dull people that can't hold down an interesting conversation. Oh and this sounds wierd but a really high percentage of them smoke!! The workplace is VERY self-policing .. your colleagues will like nothing more then dobbing you in if you spend 1.5 minutes looking at amazon. You actually have no friends - no one really does - it's everyone there for themselves no matter how much that involves them pooing on each other... because I reckon the logic is the worse you make your colleagues seem - the better you seem (relatively) to the company ..
I got rollocked also for using the word 'retard' in the office (not referring to anyone, calling my computer mouse 'retarded'), and for telling them about a drinking night when funny activities occurred (unsuitable conversation for the office). I mean there's professional and there's downright awful horrible 'give your entire life 100% to us'.
Of course a load of them earn £320,000 a year etc. and you get 4 monitors and a colour lazer printer and get to work 400 metres from 35 different nice restaurants and in a very poncy looking office with everyone in £500 suits (including you), large receptions with posh paintings and copies of the FT and the Times scattered around - and free drinks all day .. which may stroke your ego for about 2 days as you think you're 'Gordon Gecko' but then VERY quickly you start to hate it .. it really is a horrid life (I was there as a consultant). Oh, and if you ask for help people will withhold it from you if they can, because that way they consider their own jobs more secure and themselves more indispensible .. in fact they will probably take is as an opportunity to big-themselves up with a quiet word with the boss by the coffee machine 'Bit worried about Britboy, he's asking me a,b,c,d .. you sure the chap is 'decent'?. Oh and there's this nasty streak of people kind giggling to themselves about just how good they are a their jobs and how cool and important they are compared to
anyone that works anywhere else who obviously wouldn't have the brains/capability for it .. a kind of smug looking down on the rest of the world .. :/
Apart from that though -- smashing mate ..
