Am interviewing with AO within MO for a senior (GCM 8) level role. This is to do with a large public sector outsourcing contract they won in September 2006. Have a second interview in the next few weeks. Any feedback on AO generally or the MO business unit, career progression, challenges, performance on new contracts, etc will gratefully received. Am concerned that it might be case of "biting off more than they can chew", though the role itself looks good.ThanksJames Bond (nee. CIA)

Good company to work in if you want a foothold in the IT Servies or Consulting industry and cant find anything elsewhere but absolutely rubbish if you are already working in a similar company and looking for career progression. Avoid at all cost. Trust me - I was there for 2 years.

Tintin is probably right for junior roles. For senior management roles, the opportunity/challenge to have a meaningful impact (positive or negative) on the project is much greater.Career progression into influential roles can be good if you make the most of the networking opportunities.As with many of these contracts, a lot will come down to the quality of your TUPE resources. My advice would be to ask about this in interview and guage your performance goals and "first 90-day" priorities appropriately.

Thanks for the reply and I will try to get as much detail during the interview process.Does AO have the maturity to deliver large complex contracts and does it have a high quality of account level and commercial leadership? I know it has been recruiting rain-makers, senior partner types in the SI and business consulting space. What is the culture like? Also interested in views on how salary and bonus packages, WLB, career development compare across the ITO vendor space.

I work for Atos Origin and can say that it is a very good company to work for. It is, perhaps, one of the more humane IT consulting businesses around. Career progression and development is entirely dependent on your initiative and your reputation among your peers.However, at the moment the supervisory board of Atos based in Paris are evaluating strategic options ( ready to sell the company for the highest bidder). Therefore, my advise would be to ask your interviewers about this possible sale, how the announced tranformational plan would impact your role..etc.Atos is a company with solid reputation and many regard is as one of the hidden treasures of the consulting industry.Yes, Atos can delivery large IT contracts successfully. It has done so with DWP, NHS Scotland, and the Olympic Games with very good outcomes. Good Luck on your interview.

Tad - thanks for the reply. It is extremely useful insight. Had my second (and I believe final) interview two weeks ago. It went OK and initial feedback via the recruiting agent was positive. They are still seeing 1-2 other candidates at the same stage. Should find out after Easter. Have 2-3 other irons in the fire so guess at some point it will be decision time!I guess one of my niggles has been that the whole process has taken nearly 3 months and admittedly for a senior role, but is this indicative of a generally bureaucratic culture?Other questions:1) What are the opportunities to make an impact - do they suffer from a "not invented here" mindset.2) Are they commercially savvy and agile OR take a more "we will deliver to the contract & nothing more" attitude.3) Does the "leveraged" operating model for large deals allow client facing managers to be effective and drive value?4) Do they leverage mgmt consulting and SI capabilities on large outsourcing deals?Thanks

Avoid at all costs - no career prospects and the minute you look to be on the bench (through no fault of your own) they will let you go,

anyone who uses the word leverage in every other sentence, and in 2 consecutive questions neither of which actually mean anything deserves to work at a body shop like Atos.

Tad are you by any chance working in HR in Atos. Only an HR person would write anything like that for any company. Quite sad frankly if that is the case

Wow, snide remarks two years after the conversation ended. Effective, I'm sure.