Just a bit of realistic, non-cynical advice to you all - steer clear of the EDS graduate programme. I was successful at the final recruitment stage way back in February and they still haven't found me a place. I tried to be patient but after six months it seems that the whole scheme was just a waste of time, effort and hope. Furthermore, EDS is still advertising for grad positions which is outrageous since they must have a backlog of unplaced candidates that they'll never be able to sort through.Furthermore the recruitment personnel have generally been impossible to contact, disorganised and incapable of answering simple questions. I have never been so disappointed with an employer before and urge the rest of you to spread the word and avoid EDS.

Hey, don't complain. The graduates who successfully pass recruitment but never find a place are better off than those poor souls who actually get a role. Count yourself lucky you've escaped the dead-end that is life at EDS.

I have the greatest sympathy for you - I was in a similar situation with EDS 5 years ago. I passed the graduate selection process in February and 4 days before I was due to start a role on their scheme in August I received a letter telling me they had withdrawn all graduate intake for the year. Of course, I had missed all other graduate schemes and had to wait a year to reapply (I did manage to get a place at a tier 1 firm). EDS are an absolute disgrace and should be barred from having any involvement in graduate recruitment.

all, I'm shocked to read about your experience. I am an EDS Consultant, and have 2 graduates in my team. They are very bright people and bring exceptional value to our project. EDS is a great place to start your (IT) Consulting career, and I would definitely recommend it. If any of you would like to provide their name and the EDS recruiter they have been speaking to, I will try to find out where your application is. There are exciting times ahead, if the proposed merger with HP goes ahead - this would create an IT services firm with 300'000 plus people and substantial capabilities.

- and around 100k plus redundancies

Nonsense, majority of HP staff are not in IT services, they are in IT products, that is why they are buying EDS. I estimate no more than 200K IT services people in the combined organisation, still huge but 100K short of your statement. Before redundancies of course.