Alten Employee Reviews
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Systems Engineer [Traction & Power Systems Engineer] (Former Employee) - Derby - 7 September 2020
Featured review
Alten selected this as a representative reviewAn excellent company to work for with excellent salary package. You will be given the opportunity to work on cutting edge engineering projects in and around UK
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Very interesting as a first job
Design Engineer (Former Employee) - London - 17 November 2023
Young team in general, opportunity to work in big companies and get experienced. The management is as transparent as possible, and always trying to find a good compromise for the company and the employee.
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Opportunities to learn but no career growth
Mechanical Engineer (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 30 August 2023
Company is decent but they fire you within a month of not getting any other project. There are projects in domains ranging from automotive to defense as well.
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Productive and good start workplace to learn diverse skillset
Systems Engineer (Current Employee) - Birmingham, West Midlands - 9 August 2023
Good place to learn diverse skill sets across engineering and management. Opportunities are good. Cons Below average salary Less contact with managers/management Career progression only when opportunity comes. It’s very rare
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Decent company
Manufacturing Engineer (Current Employee) - Bristol - 22 May 2023
Decent company to work for. Training is good but have to make sure you ask for it. Salary progression will be slow. There are opportunities to work with different clients in the industry. Although jumping between clients and projects isn't easy, it's not impossible.
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Not secure place to work
Design Engineer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 15 February 2023
Be sure full, they will promise alot but when their contract ends with their client they will let you go. That is why there is alot of turnover. The hire when needed and let you go when it is over.
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Good entry point to the UK market, not great management or salary
Engineering Consultant (Current Employee) - Bristol - 14 February 2023
Company is a good starting point for young graduate engineers as they have a good client portfolio with interesting project. However, long term growth is not good and salary is under average.
Pros
Good learning opportunities
Cons
Pay raise subject to other engineer recommendations
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Productive and fun workplace
Business Development Manager (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 11 February 2023
Good company with challenging projects but with a good work life balance. Great colleagues, an opportunity to deepen the sales and management aspects.
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Excellent career opportunities
Senior Project Leader, Control Systems Software Development (Current Employee) - Derby, Derbyshire - 3 June 2022
Fast paced but very good career progression due to high level of organic growth. Requires dedication and commitment to meet high levels of quality expectations.
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Productive
Assistant Manager (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 25 April 2022
Leader in Engineering and IT Services ALTEN supports its customers’ development strategies in the areas of innovation, R&D and technological information systems So I recommend this
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Job roles never explained
Manager (Former Employee) - Glasgow, Glasgow - 3 March 2022
Full of very unprofessional and rude business managers that are terribly inexperienced and have no knowledge of the people they employ and or the client and the clients true end requirements.
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Profits before people.
Systems Engineer (Former Employee) - Crawley, West Sussex - 2 June 2021
In my time at Alten I was fortunate enough to experience what it's like to watch a company transform itself completely with a very negative result. When I joined in 2019 Alten was very much a people-orientated engineering company that emphasised rewards in exchange for hard work. Their recruitment process seemed honest and they were very straightforward about the way that the company worked and what was expected of their employees. At the time I was looking for a step-up from my previous job and this seemed like a good move. Yes, I might sacrifice some of my work-life balance but overall it seemed like a good place to gain some more experience. The team I joined was a bit rough around the edges but had a positive working culture that emphasised process improvement and a high rate of work delivery and quality. I learned a lot in the first few months and I count myself as privileged to have worked alongside my team and to have accomplished as much as we did in such a short time. Unfortunately Alten was hit very hard by the economic effects of the Covid pandemic and had to make aggressive staff cuts to balance the books. It seemed like they conducted this process fairly openly but right from the outset it was clear that a lot of people were going to lose their jobs. Whilst I wasn't one of them I do feel sorry for the people who were made redundant as they had pretty much no chance to offer viable alternatives to the redundancy police. The company conducted a consultation and rejected the plans offered by those who they were consulting with because ultimately they didn't meet the -
Pros
Some good people
Cons
Average pay, unpleasant customers, incompetent management
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management is appalling
Manufacturing / Supply Chain Engineer (Current Employee) - Bristol - 18 July 2020
If you are a yes man and willing to work without questioning management in the way they manipulate staff and customers then this company is ok. Question management or request training or anyghing that will cost tbe company extra money then this is not tolerated.
Pros
Easy to get job
Cons
No support
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Excessive workload , poor support
Mechanical Engineer (Former Employee) - midlands - 13 July 2020
Nice colleagues, but salary is low and managers are far too busy to support properly.
nice colleagues, not much investment into employees. profit driven, not care driven.
Cons
no support from seniors
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Do not care about employees who are treated very badly
Project Engineer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 7 July 2020
This company does not care about it employees at all, they are treated with no respect and got rid of whenever it suits the company for little or no justifiable reason – a very hire and fire culture.
They will always believe what their client says above and beyond their employees, and use this to get rid of their employees when it suits them, especially when the clients budget is cut.
Passing their 3 monthly reviews is a farce, as they are very limited and this does not go against your overall performance.
Do not raise any issues that they are having with the client, as they will use this against you when it suits to get rid of you.
Their processes are a joke, and reviews with senior management are very unprofessional and you are treated with contempt. They are late, arrogant and will not review and take a considered approach to all the items on the agenda. Making very unjustified decisions on a very small limited area of the issue. They do not consider your overall performance and if I had worked their longer, I would have taken them to an industrial tribunal, but as they work very underhandly I cannot. HR attend reviews but stay silent – worried about their own job security.
In summary a very poorly ran company who use you to maximise their profits, whilst feeding you lies about what a great career you can have with them. I should have known better as what I heard from other people working for them was and is true and very shocking.
Pros
Absolutely and utterly none at all.
Cons
Do not care about employees who are treated very badly
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Exciting workplace with many opportunities
Software Engineer (Current Employee) - Derby, Derbyshire - 22 June 2020
Career managers are very helpful in picking out potential projects and progressing your skills. There are a wide variety of projects available within a large number of companies. Friendly workplace. Coronavirus situation handled poorly. A lot of redundancies in progress.
Pros
Good Facilities, Supportive Career Managers, Flexibility, Plentiful Career Opportunities
Cons
Poor handling of Coronavirus, possibility of needing to relocate, Job security depends on available projects
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Do not work for Alten
Project Leader (Former Employee) - Derbyshire - 9 June 2020
Worst job experience of my life. It’s good maybe only for young graduates. No job ethic towards the employees whatsoever only customer oriented policy. Very bad
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Excellent engineering services.
Electronics Engineer (Current Employee) - Cheltenham, Gloucestershire - 14 May 2020
Provide consultant services for different type of industries. Alten is a strong consultant company with great interaction with important industries that can give opportunities to consultants to have interesting engineering experience.
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Enginering role
Test Engineer (Former Employee) - UK - 31 March 2020
Alten is consultant company so consider it before you join. Very nice and helpful colleagues on the project Management decision is very poor. Almost no training, if it's not strictly required by customer. Carrier developement is dificult, if you do not want to be hiring manager.
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Good company to start with
Fast pace environment which allows ground for progression in a short time. Possibility to take the lead on different topics, very open minded management.
International environment with an amazing team.
Only negative aspect: base salary compared to working hours
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Avoid this company at all costs.
Mechanical Engineer (Former Employee) - London - 6 January 2020
Alten claims they employ 34000 staff worldwide in several countrires including Australia. When checking for jobs overseas in those countries there were no offices in Australia and when questioned.....they were ''in the process of buying other Engineering resources so in the future they will have offices in Aus''. In the induction Australia was lit up red as was most of the world giving the impression Alten are bigger than they claim to be. This is just one lie in the hundreds of promises that are made to their staff. Alten have the highest turnover of staff yet they still hide behind the 34000 new recruits.
The pay is disgraceful. They pay staff less and they offer you a supplementary bonus to make up what was already your salary. This bonus isn't written in your contract so don't ever attempt to get a mortgage with it. They can change your job location once your contract at the customer finishes so you have to commute in some cases 3/4 times as far and they do. No additional allowance for expenses. Note all expenses are to be paid from your pocket and some of the expenses you may claim back over a month later - oh and you need to post the receipts not email them as that's company policy.
To leave Alten you need to give 3 months notice yet they can terminate your contract within 1wk until your probation period is complete. They can increase this past 6months if they choose.
Alten claims to pay for training yet the only training you will get is what is offered by the customer or internal training which isn't accredited.
The health insurance package is cleverly worded in -
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Ask a question about working or interviewing at Alten. Our community is ready to answer.Ask a QuestionOverall rating
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Ratings by category
3.3 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
2.7 out of 5 stars for Salary/Benefits
2.7 out of 5 stars for Job security/advancement
2.6 out of 5 stars for Management
2.8 out of 5 stars for Culture
Questions about Alten
- What is Alten sick leave policy? How many sick leave days do you get per year?5 people answered
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