Awful Development Environment - Software Engineer Blackhawk Network Employee Review

1.0
May 29, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting technology. Talented peers. Compensation is okay. Company appears to have a good product and vision for the future.

Cons

Where to start... extremely high expectations on performance coupled with expected use of personal time to perform research and other tasks. Lack of leadership within development teams to push back on management and promote good practices within teams. Aggressive deadlines which lead to technical debt in the code base and no interest from management in refactoring or any other work which does not lead to feature development. They say that they're agile, but only the parts that management likes. Architecture team is completely separated from the development teams so there is no real effort to improve designs. Extremely political atmosphere at the management level to the point where teams within the company can not effectively work with each other. 2 (now 3) week vacation policy but it is mandatory to use your PTO between christmas and new years, so you lose 3-4 days automatically. There is a lot of domain knowledge that experienced team members have acquired over time, but you are expected to know on day one. Extremely stressful.

Explore other reviews about Blackhawk Network

5.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Make your own hours Easy job Great management

Cons

Lots of driving around Hours vary

4.0
Jun 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good management, bonus opportunities, training

Cons

The pay is low. Staffing isn’t enough to meet workload, no performance based raises for entry level employees, and very few promotions available

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All