I&apos;ve noticed that Atos Consulting are recruiting within their Operations and Change practices (re latest top-consultant advertisements)My question is - is it a good time to join after their much publicised headcount reduction last year? <See earlier posts on this site>Also does anybody know the business rationale for this (i.e. headcount reductions followed by a large recruitment drive)

I used to work for a top strat house that used to hire at the same time as making redundan... *cough* I mean "performance based layoffs".Basically they wanted to keep the outside world thinking all was fine and dandy within the firm. They didn&apos;t want word spreading around the top colleges/business schools that they weren&apos;t doing well and, even worse, were reducing headcount.

Atos stopped recruiting for most roles while they were going through their, ahem, rightsizing process.There is no harm is talking to them and seeing what they have to say. There are still some very good people there...

Working for Atos as I do I can confirm we are doing very well right now and actively recruiting in a number of areas such as Change Mgt/HR, Procurement and Financial Services. Utilisation is very high and looks good moving forward.I would say this wouldn&apos;t I but it is a good firm to work for and a great environment for personal development.

I met a few Atos characters at the &apos;recruitment fair&apos; last year. A few things struck me:1. They were the only firm (as far as I could tell) that was giving out &apos;business cards&apos; which contained only the address of their careers website. No personal cards here, mate. So for all you guys who went out of your way to travel to the event because you thought it would somehow be beneficial - all they did was tell you to look at their website and apply online. Great.2. They had a distinctive &apos;big 4&apos; feel to them. Sort of like they have roots in accountancy and bean counting but now see theirselves as &apos;consultants&apos;. A big, faceless, unaccountable firm was the impression I came away with.3. I&apos;m confused by their whole branding thing. What professional consultancy would have a brightly coloured fish as its logo? And what does Atos mean anyway, it sounds like a civil engineering firm. Also are they an expensive IT company or do they really do &apos;consulting&apos; work? It all sounds a bit &apos;fishy&apos; to me.4. The people on the stand weren&apos;t exactly friendly. Sure they would talk to you, but the guy I was speaking to (fairly senior) would turn his back as soon as someone else came along. That said a lot to me.Obviously these are just my own personal opinions. You&apos;ll need to form your own conclusions.

So they turned you down then !!!!

Atos are a great company to work for. The fish is a special kind of fish who is agile and is very good when swimming against strong currents. Atos is perhaps the best and most human workplace among the big consulting firms. There are lots of bright people there and it is totally up to the individual employee in terms of personal and career development. As for business cards, well, I have one and it shows my contact details on it. A great company to work for but would wait in terms of joining them as they are currently going through their transformational plan - to make the UK part profitable.

Are you saying that the UK part isn&apos;t profitable? That they have to &apos;transform&apos; the company to make it profitable?Hmm... methinks their cosy little culture may be in for a change

UK is profitable - issue that hit the press last year was lower profits than planned but business was/is profitable nevertheless (unlike a number of others out there at present)

Left Atos consulting 6 months ago for BCG, however Atos Consulting are definitely going places. Major streamiling in place and most work if working in FS will be strategy work. Small team of approx 30 specialists of various age and backgrounds and good exposure. Not sure how far they have moved on from when I left but was great place to work. Alot of changes taking place which was annoying at times though.

from senior sources here in Deloitte, hear Atos consulting are our biggest rivals in the strategy world for FS work in London. they seem to have good ppl and infrstructure ( now) and seem to be ruthless, some of their clients are GS, RBS, Barclays who they intend to keep and are also utilising the parent company Atos origin for solutions which normally EDS and IBM used to provide. They are also hunting down top ppl from other firms, but doubt they have the luring power and versatility of the top firms