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Big Nerd Ranch

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Dying Culture - Solution Architect Big Nerd Ranch Employee Review

3.0
Aug 19, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Health Insurance Plan is good (but not free) - Engineering leadership listens well and is fairly transparent - Good focus on time for professional development and a yearly $2,500 benefit to do it

Cons

- Most placements are staff augmentation at large companies - Since being acquired by projekt202/amdocs we are also a large company with little input into policies - Many promises are broken - They promised to tell us about our annual bonus structure for the year ending Sept 30 in May, then delayed to July. In July, they told us they would compute the bonus Oct - Dec and probably pay Jan 30, but they still (as of Aug 19th) haven't told us how they plan to compute it. - They promised additional raises and salary band adjustments in October 1, 2022. Then, they posted something about adjustments happening October - December in late July. We asked about the discrepancy and HR hasn't replied to the post since then. - Most of our goals right now are how much profit we can deliver to amdocs and shareholders (also, there is no employee stock purchase plan so you can't benefit from that unless you independently buy stock) - Because of all this our best staff are leaving.

Explore other reviews about Big Nerd Ranch

5.0
Nov 1, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun culture. Friendly people. Excellent wlb.

Cons

None that I can think of.

2.0
Jul 18, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big Nerd Ranch has a lot of smart individual contributors, and there are often technically interesting and challenging apps to work on. You can learn a highly marketable new skill on-the-job, and the experience you get there is a great preparation for companies that are looking to hire software developers with a few years of experience. The work/life flexibility is hard to beat, the coffee is top notch, and the lack of oversight means there is very little in the way of sharp people accomplishing great things.

Cons

Several years into the merger with Highgroove Studios, the management doesn't get it, doesn't care about the people or the culture, and is really only interested in the bottom line. Perks are cancelled when there is a lull in consulting business, layoffs have happened only for hiring to pick back up the next month when work speeds up, and if you don't know what you're worth when applying, your offered salary will be a lot lower than other people there with similar experience to you. If you want to grow your career, you aren't given any direction or resources, and if you aren't teaching a class or writing a book, you probably should have your things packed.

7
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