Where to begin…let’s start with Marketing. Marketing does a stellar job of making CapTech look like a cool, modern, young, fun place to work (consider that a Pro). But it’s just like everything they tell you about social media: it’s not real! I was so pumped to come here because of what was publicly presented and was sorely disappointed. The Richmond office is a terrible and outdated facility and there is no social/fun culture here (according to other reviews, other offices have the opposite problem of partying too hard so go figure). If you’re reading this thinking about taking a job at CapTech because it looks like a cool place that values employees’ satisfaction – it’s smoke and mirrors, my friend, so keep walking.
Projects are hit or miss – I’ve been bored out of my mind or beyond stressed out. A common type of project CapTech has pursued and won is thankless and is always poorly set up from Day 1. The big wig pitching the sale is so concerned with winning the work that they agree to an incredibly low budget and timeline compared to other bidders. The big wig gets a nice bonus and a hearty congrats from senior leaders while the team doing the work is screwed every way possible. Not enough budget = small staff. Small staff + insanely short timeline = late nights and weekends y’all. As a thank you from the big wig for all the hard work, the team got Chipotle for lunch once ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Next up: promotions. The good news is if you are a college hire, promotions are a breeze. You’ll go from consultant to senior consultant to manager in 4 years flat. If you’re a lateral hire, you will have a much tougher hill to climb. But the easiest way to climb that hill is to buddy up to the senior leaders in your office so they “know your name”. It truly doesn’t matter if you’re killing it at the client and all your feedback is absolutely glowing. If the people making the decisions don’t know your name, you’re not getting promoted. Because this is the unspoken promotion process, talented consultants are getting passed over for big-egoed extroverts that put networking above all. (Spoiler alert: brown-nosing doesn’t translate to good management skills.)
The most talented consultants are leaving in droves and thus turnover is incredibly high. CapTech is trying to fill the openings AND continue to grow which leads to a ton of pressure on recruiters to bring in warm bodies and the bar just keeps going lower to meet demand. I know at least one example where a sub-par candidate was hired because the recruiter was told to hire a specific type of tech talent “like yesterday” and there were no other candidates that fit the bill. Hiring mediocre consultants makes a mediocre company. With this hiring mentality, CapTech will stay a second-tier consulting firm.
