Art imitating life. Life imitating art - Tricentis main product is called Tosca. Based on the tragic opera. Ironic
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The past.
I loved. LOVED who we where.
The people that sat side by side with me through long nights and hard deadlines. The people, goals, and work culture you could respect so much, you have been really proud to be a part of this.
This wasn't just a company to so many of us.
This was an adventure.
This was something you would put your working pants on. You almost forgot you are doing a job, but raveled in the challenge of making it happen, for those people your respected. For your friends.
They weren't senior front end developer 13. Chinese ethnicity. Productivity index 12. Believes in ... Voted for ...
These have been human beings.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The entire recent past.
I think if you read all these things there is no need to go further into this here.
I did not believe a work place could break my heart like this one could.
I love my own life. I love my partner. I am looking forward to my new work. I will miss friends I had here.
In a way I understand now what one of the other guys told me when he left and I told him that this will blow over. This isn't what it is. We will soon be back in glory. It is not nearly as bad as he thinks.
I was just still bargaining. The breakup already happened. I just did not want to believe it. I did not want to see it.
There had been too many good times in the past. There had been too many good memories with too many good people.
I did not want to accept what this place turned into.
If you really need the money. Or you just need to put the 1 to 2 years on your CV. Go hear. But if you read this I only ask you to read it twice.
Please think about this well.
Whoever you are, you deserve a better place and this will not be a good experience.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Get rid of all forms of (identity) politics, activism and other stuff that just drives people apart. We are grown ups. We don't need others to preach about morality and ethics. This drives people apart. I am not saying the topics they claim to address with this in of themselves aren't important. But this is not what a workplace is for. If you want to discuss in a break, at lunch, banter about things. Sure. But you turned a software development company into a politically charged US university campus. Be professionals.
I am really sorry to say this - but the engineering management needs to change. ASAP! You removed the people that stood up for us and liked us. I don't even understand how you can give no proper directions and micromanage at the same time. This is almost art. Don't treat engineers like cogwheels. We are creative people. And we want to be respected.
Focus on the things that made us who we used to be.
You forgot what made this a success.
You forgot what made this a thing.
Go back to what matters, what worked, what people loved - not told to love.
Find people who love the products and the company for what it is. Who love success and have passion. Not to recite "company value" and try to have this be whatever you try it to be.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Used to be absolutely awesome.
But it is insane now.
After the start of Covid and the US unrest, this company lost it's collective mind.
Management encouraged people to join the riots. Company wide meetings now literally are 50% to 70% (identity) politics and ideology preaching. The HR department runs a dedicated team for "diversity", they go around and demanding donations for Black Lives Matter, and keep reminding everyone about their "biases", tell the company how "problematic white privilege is", tell you to "educate yourself" (of course the reading list is very balanced...), about man being "toxic in general and problematic", that "not being racist is not enough. You have to be anti-racist and actively follow this [insert list like you are a child being led around a leash]". If someone would have told me this I would not have believed them. That is the kind of thing you read about somewhere and shake your head. Experiencing this genuinely cult like demeanor is honestly terrifying for anyone with a working knowledge of history. There are rumors about new policies with lines like "no expectation of privacy". Automated lists group up all women, certain races, ...
Kommunikation
Mixed bag - like many things.
There are global meetings that used to be there to get infos about the cool products and positive stuff that went on. Just generally get in on other departments and feel like there is this shared goals. Those have changed now... wrote about that earlier. I mute them now to keep my sanity.
There are enough tools in place that you can talk to the people you actually like or care about.
Pro tip - if you consider someone friends or have political opinions that do not line up with certain US parties and ideologies, under no circumstances use company apps to talk.
If you are in contact with the right people you can have super awesome talks! I will give that to the people that are so great and that I will miss very much!
Kollegenzusammenhalt
This is so hard to rate.
The average Engineer is awesome, but the best efforts are being made to drive everyone apart. Cross department is really dependent on tons of factors. Your mileage may vary here. The recent focus on activism drove people apart hard though in general.
It used to be that people of all origins and backgrounds just naturally came together to do stuff.
That is dead. You now literally have "diversity and inclusion watchdogs" that check if everything is being done "right".
I got an HR warning about someone reporting "anonymous" micro aggression I seem to have displayed in a comment in my code. Surreal.
Work-Life-Balance
If 12 to 15 hour days, having bend over backward to cover for worldwide time zones with no financial compensation and the expectation to be reachable on mail and chat and whatsnot all the time sounds like balance to you they have that in spades.
Engineering is tough. Deadlines are hard. You know how it is.
If the project runs well you can have certain freedoms, but be aware if you want a nice 9 to 5 this just isn't the place. Or at least it is when you get something to do. Right now it is totally aimless. Just more hiring of managers that seem to hire more managers to congratulate each other. We need REAL help.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Depends.
The top managers are so off track now....
Literally gave people in the US days off and encouraged them to take parts in riots. I mentioned more of that earlier and don't want to write more here. I just want it out of my head & life and move on to a more friendly new work where I can focus on building and the company comes together for that.
Engineering direct top level management is pretty bad. Command and control. A pretty high number of senior devs that could find new jobs already went out of here recently. After that started to take shape the top level engineering management started throwing long standing managers in Engineering out because they tried to stand up for their teams.
Your direct manager may be decent the farther you are away from the top. Just make sure you don't have to interact with higher up and don't open your mouth.
Interessante Aufgaben
Not sure about all areas of the company.
It is kind of OK in engineering, but the product landscape is just limited. Not that many languages in use, and they don't really allow you to move much around.
Gleichberechtigung
You can get all the "equality" in the world if you believe in this modern "white people and men" are evil thing.
They even have a special group in the company that will make sure to tell you all about that all the time.
But all cynicism aside, before they started their recent push for activism and (identity) politics, it used to be that we had people from everywhere and all went along.
Before they decided to make skin colors and religions the most important thing in the world, shine a big light on it all the time and view everything out of that angle. Now you can see people trying to avoid other for fear of making a joke that is "problematic" or being seen as "sexist". Best to stick to people who are like you now.
How I miss the days of just being a bunch of crazy people grilling and having a good time.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
This company does not hire anyone above around 30 unless you are an insanely talented person or know someone.
Arbeitsbedingungen
That is very different per person.
I think the company really tries here.
I really wish we would have better computers and more in general. Maybe Tablets + Desktop + Laptop (or flexi one for when we are moving but keep them in stock else) and more options in general. I really love Dell but can't get it.
Office gear is OK-ish. They have some places and ways to get stuff that you can adjust the heights with motors instead of working around with tools but they are rare.
I once talked with the team that does Office stuff and one guy from IT who looked like he never slept in his life, so from what I gather there it is the age old problem of money. But honestly with how much cash they seem to have and how much they got from their investors they should pay more for the equipment of the people if that is what is holding it back.
The stuff isn't bad though. Honestly. I have seen way worse. For engineers you get decent multi cores (8 cores atm), SSD drives, good amount of storage. 32 GB of Ram.
Of course right now we are mostly at home so the Office stuff does not matter that much
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
I can't say how much of a topic that is.
I have not heard anyone focusing on this. At least climate protection or fair trade and such did not really come up in Engineering.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
It really varies widely depending on your department and role.
Unless you are a sales that brings in good deals, you are not getting rich here.
Image
Barely anyone who gets the chance to talk openly had too much nice things to say recently.
Certainly not in engineering.
The company likes to talk a ton about there "values", but they don't live that at all. Especially in the more recent times.
I talked about this a good amount here.
If you really need the money or start here for some other reason though - for your own sake be incredibly careful what you say and especially what you type. Keep your opinions to yourself, unless you are sure you know what the others want to hear. This goes super double for Engineering Management. Be very careful.
Maybe it is better for other departments.
Or maybe I am just one of those "problematic people that internalized too much whatevers" but I have had colleagues in engineering ask me if I would give them my private number for private messages and stuff. I did. We met up and had some fun. We drank a little. We talk a little about work and one of them broke down and could not stop crying. It was heartbreaking.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There has been some stuff from the old HR team where you could get things like LinkedIn Learning, but this is clearly not a priority for the company.
In terms of career. It really depends.
They are not that big and there isn't really a traditional promotion/career path where you would say stay X years and be expected to become an architect or senior, etc. ...
I honestly don't see that much opportunity for this here.
Sometimes there is lateral stuff. So if you want to make your years of learning coding obsolete I guess you could try to become a product manager?
No really. There is no "traditional" paths here.