jobbite
...CEO who drove the company to success for number of years had moved on to greater bids. Then one of most capable directors followed on. The suddenly gaping window of opportunity is swiftly filled up by those happening close enough and naturally, as it usually happens under such circumstances, company takes "new and improved approach" as some would call it, while "terribly wrong turn" would be an accurate assessment. Without further ado, here's what it's current state of internal health:
Strengths:
- Competitive compensation.
- Convenient location, excellent facilities, relaxed environment, no strict attendance rules, no strict dress code.
- Fast experience gain through involvement with variety of projects utilizing mixed platforms.
- Excellent approach to user experience development, though every shortcut is made to skip such stage altogether.
Weaknesses:
- Technology is underused and somewhat monopolized.
- Tendency of "quick and dirty" development lacking design.
- Responsibilities are often misplaced. Technical decisions are often made on closed meetings by those who have very limited exposure to technology.
- Overall commercial sector project management practices are poor, often bordering on incompetence that is especially pronounced in such areas as planning, requirements/domain analysis and resource allocation. The commercial team evidently suffers from the lack of skillful leadership, which is pronounced in fact manipulation, authoritarian management style and overall ostrich-like approach to problem solving, (i.e. head in the sand and pretend the problems don't exist).
Good employer for:
Jr. to Mid level developer/ DBA/ networking engineer/ UX designer. Expect fast absorption of MS technology and plenty of opportunity of its application. Promotion to Sr. Developer is likely within 1.5 - 2 years.
Insufficient employer for:
Sr. level developer. Expect time/budget losses due to inadequate specifications, poor resource management, disoriented approach to SDP. Promotion is unlikely.
Inadequate employer for: Technical leader / architect. The company does not utilize good technical coordination practices transferring the decision making in that area to project management that lacks the necessary level of technical literacy. Expect conflicting situations. Promotion to a role with higher responsibilities is highly unlikely.