kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe) (05/27/85)
A friend has just been offered a job with EDS (Electronic Data Systems, Dallas, Texas), and I'm considering applying for a job there. What's the company like to work for, in general, and, in particular, what's their SED (Systems Engineering Development) training program like? I read their promotional literature, which was less than enlightening, and talked with their recruiter, who knew nothing about EDS or SED. I didn't expect promotional literature to say much, but EDS' is worse than average. It's a very pretty booklet filled with pictures of handsome women and good-looking men in 3-piece suits looking bored (all lily-white -- no pictures of Asian or black employees). The text tells us that an "EDS Systems Engineer is a professional who is capable of producing information processing solutions for business problems" and that "the SED Program is rigorous, demanding and intense. Yet almost every one of our graduates would have it no other way." "*Almost* every one"? It's nice to know that some EDS employees are lazy slobs (-:. Because the promotional literature said nothing about what a systems engineer actually does at EDS or what their training program actually consists of, I asked their recruiter about that. He said that he didn't know, never having been through the SED program himself. I asked some questions about EDS. He said that he didn't know much about the company, having only worked there for 8 months. I asked about technical writing (my career interest), and he said that he wasn't sure whether EDS had technical writers. He told me that EDS is hiring 6,000 SED trainees, and spends $150,000 on each one. I asked how a company with $800 million in net annual revenues could spend $900 million on training. He couldn't explain this -- earlier in the conversation he'd said that his background was in financial planning! He was wearing a very expensive suit, and was rather condescending to me because I wasn't wearing a suit (though I was dressed very nicely). I would like to know something about the company, other than the fact that one of their employees is a bozo. If you can tell me anything about EDS, please let me know. (Don't bother to tell me about how EDS hired mercenaries to get two employees out of an Iranian prison -- I've read "On Wings Of Eagles.)
kremen@aero.ARPA (Gary Kremen) (12/12/85)
There is an article about working at EDS in today's (December 11) Wall
Street Journal on page 6.
I interviewed with EDS last year when I was at school (Northwestern).
My opinion - which was a general consensus of everyone who interviewed
with EDS - is they are a great company to stay away from.
--
Name: Gary Kremen
Address 1: kremen@aerospace.ARPA
Address 2: {sdcdcf,trwba,randvax}!aero!kremen
Quote:"Everybody loves to see justice done...on someone else" - Bruce Cockburn
Contrapositive: "To Live and Die to live and drive in LA"
Disclaimer 1: "The company does not know what I am doing"
Disclaimer 2: "Both the company and I have great lawyers"