‘I Love My Job’: Why I’ve Stayed at My Collaborative, Open and Growth-Oriented Company for 22 Years

Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from real women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Brandi Carter, a Director of Consulting Services at CGI, one of the world’s largest IT and business consulting firms.

One of Carter’s favorite aspects of life at CGI is that “it's really a great place to grow your career,” she shares. “What I really like about CGI is that you're able to shape your own career — there's no set career path that you have to take,” Carter elaborates. “You work closely with your manager to identify your interests and where you want to go with your career, which can change at different times of your life and also supports your work-life balance.”

“Whether it's a different assignment, or it's different tasks within your current role, or it's getting a mentor to mentor you in certain aspects, I've found that I'm able to really grow my career by working closely with my manager,” says Carter. And this is only one of the many reasons she loves working at CGI.

In the video below, Carter shares more on why she loves working at CGI. We also provide lightly edited highlights from this video discussion in the following article.

Tell us about your work and career journey.

I've worked for CGI for 22 years. I began my career as a business analyst lead, and I've had many different leadership roles in my career here at CGI. I'm currently working in the health and social services business unit. I'm managing delivery of one of our projects and pursuing several opportunities to help grow our business.

What do you find most exciting about your work?

What I find most exciting about my work at CGI is, when my team and I are faced with a difficult problem that we need to solve for our client, we all come together. We all have different backgrounds, experiences and skill sets, and we all share those and come up with and implement a solution for our client. It's the best feeling to have success when working as a team to solve those issues for our clients.

How would you describe the culture at CGI?

If I had to put it in one word, I would say collaborative. At CGI, we call our employees members, and the company actually has a share purchase plan so that everyone can be a shareholder and can feel like they really are owners of the company.

Based on that backdrop, everyone wants to make all of our projects a success. So, it is not out of the norm to have people from other projects come to help out if a project needs their specific skill sets. I like being able to work across organizational boundaries to make all of our projects a success.

What is your favorite thing about CGI?

It's the people. To be more specific, it is that we all work together. We all respect and are interested in hearing each other's perspectives.

Our management team has an open door policy. So, I know if I have any concerns or any ideas for improvement, they'll be open to hearing about those… Our members like to have fun together. While our work is very serious, we don't hesitate to make a joke or participate in social events with each other to cultivate that side as well.

What advice would you give to other women who are thinking about working at CGI?

The advice I'd give to women looking to work at CGI is to be willing to try new things. If you're given an opportunity to try something, even if you have doubts about whether you're ready for it, go ahead and try it. Being willing to try new things, have lessons learned from those moments and improve for the next time is really the way to accelerate your career and get to the next level.

Interested in joining the CGI team? They’re hiring! Click the link below to browse opportunities.

Fairygodboss is proud to partner with CGI. Find a job there today!

Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series:

[Please note that this list will be updated by Fairygodboss as other articles become available.]

• 'I Love My Job’: Excelling Due to a ‘Collaborative, Customer-Centric and Forward-Looking’ Culture

• 'I Love My Job’: ‘Behavior Is Truth’ — How My Company Acts on Their Values and Supports Employees

• 'I Love My Job’: Why My Company Is ‘The Best Kept Secret in Silicon Valley’ — From a DEI Lead

• 'I Love My Job’: I’m a Senior Director in the ‘Emerging Field of Belonging’ at the World’s #1 CRM

• 'I Love My Job’: Undertaking an Exciting Digital Transformation While Promoting Women in Engineering