The Making of a Lost Decade - Software Developer Hyland Employee Review

The company is in major flux. Historically, we were always billed as the "top" software developer in Northeast Ohio, but that is quickly changing. Since the retiring of our CTO, we've been pivoting from being a technology company to a sales organization. Our CTO and head of Research and Development was replaced by the Executive VP of Sales. That happened to coincide with the renaming of 'Hyland Software' to just 'Hyland'. During this transition we've been collecting acquired competitors at a blistering pace, slowly whittling down the competition in the market. As such, we've focused less and less on new product development and instead on consolidating our products while making them cheaper to maintain with less man power. As with any product transition, we've embarked on some exciting changes. Our near term goals revolve around quietly replacing QA-specific functions with automated tests. We've been repeatedly told we're not replacing QA, just minimizing their overall need. We've also focused heavily on minimizing our need for purpose-specific niche technologies and instead are replacing them with more reusable but less-capable generic web technologies. Our head-first jump into the web has left many developers in a lurch. They've built their careers around our platform and the technology stack we've built it on, but as products are retro-fitted they've found their skills are not longer wanted and must retrain. In essence, developers have been given an ultimatum, start over and become a novice in something new and let your old mastery fade, or find someone new who values and rewards said mastery. That's exactly what's been happening. We've shed whole teams of developers, and not just a couple low seniority people. Vital people, people who have been here for a decade or more. People who have led teams, architected the core foundations of our product. Our experts are leaving.. and we're not replacing them with comparable industry experience. We don't hire anything but entry level, straight out of college, 0-2 years experience. We're hurddling the company head first into a Microsoft "lost decade" if we don't stop the bleeding. It'll already take years to re-acquire or re-train the talent we're losing in the current brain drain. Its not just the technology though, its also the lack of trust and uncertainty. The re-org, in the trenches, is a disaster. I'm amazed at the cancer-like negativity I hear spoken at people's desks, but the sickly-sweet positivity I hear spoken to management. Position plans have changed three times in the last two years. People are moving teams constantly, its impossible to keep track of who is in charge of what and why? As other reviews have stated, there were a lot of promises; competitive positions being posted, pay scales/pay bands being published, etc. These never came to pass. There has always been deflection after deflection because things are, as always "a work in progress". Promotions are near impossible. We've created two tracks, Architect and Developer. The architect track is "competitive", with posting, interviews and promotions. For the first round, that was true; but now whole new positions are popping into existence, pre-filled. It screams of cronyism. The developer track is no better. In this track you get promoted based on "skill", but really its about budget and stack rankings. If 10 people reach a certain skill level, but we budgeted for three, you better hope you're in the top three. And oh yeah, promotions only happen twice a year, so have fun playing the 'promise and wait' game. This track was condensed from the old five positions to just three. After the "big crunch", more than 80% of all developers are either Dev 1 or 2. Two years or fifteen years seniority.. this is your lot. The Dev 3 position is nearly impossible to obtain, because of limited budgeting for this pay band, high demand and stack rankings, and managers each only having one 'slot', you might be hearing you're in the running for years before your time happens. On top of it, only Dev 3's can apply for the architect track, so good luck. Pay, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Its bad. We hire only entry level. You can look up the numbers for junior/dev 1; its low, its non-negotiable and only expect around a 3% raise. I'm not kidding, 3%. After the re-org and promotions at the highest levels, there is virtually no budget left for everyone else. Raises this year are basically a flat 2-2.5k. Pay is always contentious and always a disappointment. You'll spend many years helping the executive team, the company, the shareholders meet their financial goals, but don't expect any reciprocity for you to meet yours. As other reviews have said, the place is insidious.