Pros
- WFH policy changed (thanks to Covid)
Cons
- The work. I used to be able to brag about the cool projects I worked on here. How we were innovating and changing with the tech landscape. That has not happened in at least 12 months now. Innovation is a buzzword thrown around but represents very little. Be prepared to patch, band-aid, and maintain whatever you are assigned to. New ideas are great for a team chat but forget about getting those tickets on the board. - Coworkers. There are very few still here from the time that I started. Almost all the good ones have gone. Those that remain, are most likely looking for a move. The engineers that are moving quickly up the ranks, are management friends/favorites and talk a whole lot, but deliver very little. In fact, the features they do deliver go against more tenured engineer advice, yet they get approved and the team has to add that to our tech debt list. Those who have been promoted to staff or senior staff level constantly bring their agenda to team meetings, which generates a lot of tension and prevents the team from moving forward on a lot of topics. The aforementioned engineers move from team to team as there seems to be a huge effort from management to drive the careers of certain engineers. My personal feeling is that if you don't say what management wants to hear all the time, you won't be on that list. - Management. Well, where do I start? Again, we lost a lot of the management that was here when I started. Those that remain are Jira board fanatics, but leadership shy. Management will sit on a team call, listening to their unofficial team lead argue with all of the other engineers, yet not intervene. It goes on forever and generates so much tension. I have no idea why it's allowed to continue. If you call the manager out, the response is something like, "Let's be nicer to each other, and document how to do that". Read that last part again. The noticeable difference here is, if the manager misses the meeting, the "lead" never speaks. It's all for show. They are unable to manage changing situations vs expected deliverables. During development, things become apparent that were not known previously. When your engineers tell you that we should revisit what we want to do, you should listen. Don't insist we stay the path just because you don't want to back down. So much wasted time, unhappy end-users, and poor team morale. Shocking management. Your one-on-one with your manager is supposed to be private. However, don't be surprised to see everything you say in a shared Google doc. Not just work-related either. Chit-chat about family, etc is in there too. Where is the trust or the authenticity there? You can't ask how my family is doing without taking notes on it in a shared Google doc? Last but not least. The quarterly mandatory meeting with the "CTO". This is dressed up as a way for him to have some time getting to know you and the team. Don't be fooled though. It is a grilling session to make sure everyone knows what the upcoming deliverables are. Get your presentation ready and know your Jira board inside out, because the relaxed get-to-know-you meeting is coming up. So relaxing. Maybe he knows his management is as bad as I do and he wants to make sure engineers at least know what to do. Who knows? - Summary If you are looking for a place to fit in as a yes man and just take a paycheck, Bazaarvoice is for you. However, if you prefer to push yourself, work on technically challenging projects, it may not be a good match. I had a feeling I should have left during the last mass exodus, but I stayed. My career has regressed as a result. It looks like things are better for Engineering in the Bangalore or Belfast office, but Austin is nosediving in terms of quality. If you want to innovate, deliver quality, and grow your career, your time may be best served elsewhere.