- Clients are not explicitly required to treat EPAM resources with dignity and respect. I have personally been in a position in which I was treated poorly at the client just because. I have worked for other vendors that even include basic things such as "Our resources are to be treated with dignity and respect" as a client requirement. EPAM, for the most part, is afraid of tackling these things head on and their solution when reported is to either tell you to develop "thick skin" or just pull you out of the project - rather than addressing it with the client
-Scope Management: You get in trouble if you don't manage your scope (which is natural) and if you do. If you give the client more: "how come you didn't bill for that". If you do control your scope to the penny and push back on the client trying to "squeeze in" more stuff then you get the proverbial "you cannot be so inflexible, this is a good way to be considered for more business"
-Management Support: If you are in trouble, the management support that you will get is "Do what the client wants so that they are happy" ... period. There is no negotiating, there is no help to find middle ground. I was in an escalation in which the timeline was a risk because the client was late BUT wanted the same timeline anyway. The support was never "hey client you were late, let's find common ground" nope, they just bend over backwards and you are the bad guy.
-It's cool for the client to scapegoat you: there is this "we need to make sure that the client point of contact looks good" which makes sense. In my time at EPAM I have developed mistrust for EVERYONE at the client. I even worked with this horrendous person that put words in my mouth and got me in trouble. this person claimed that I have committed to a date and time which I had already informed, in writing, that was not feasible. I had paper trail and during the escalation call, I was told to let it go. I legit said "this person is lying I have proof". The answer was "let's move forward"
These are not deal breakers, no. I, on some level, understand the reasons behind this. But if you are going to join EPAM, know that you are going to be on an uphill battle FOR HOWEVER LONG YOU WORK FOR EPAM. You will learn, you will grow and you will be compensated. But you will be stressed out the entire ride.
