Great on a day-to-day basis, but relatively low pay and dim long term prospects.
Pros
A large company with many government contracts across the UK means job security is high and there are many opportunities to move around the country, between contracts, if you need to. Good interaction between support staff in offices and operatives working on the road helps keep things efficient. Excellent record for safety.
Cons
The pay offered was very low compared to other companies, both at a junior, senior and management levels. Grievances over pay were often discussed over the water cooler, which led to a high personnel turnover, both on individual contracts and at the head office. The statistics were, however, on a downward trend when I left so things may have now improved. Many staff had little issue openly stating, in front of management, that they would leave BBIS in an instant if offered a job that paid more. I, for example, was earning 30% less than counterparts in other engineering companies. An intern I worked with claimed she was being paid less than 40% of what her counterparts were and that the sponsorship offer she was presented with bound her to work for the company for 5 years after leaving university, again, on low pay. The contract director told her not to accept the offer and to find work elsewhere as it would be better for her in the long run! The procurement department was living on a different planet when they bid for contracts, often going in with prices below the raw cost, let alone raw cost + overheads. I worked with two contracts in my time there and the Quantity Surveyors on both often complained about having to 'round up' quantities (i.e. falsify records) when requesting payments for work orders, simply to balance the books. It's not nice working for a company, knowing the people you work with are overcharging the council due to incompetence at the head office and it's even worse knowing that your council taxes are paying for it
