What a mess! - Senior Software Engineer Morningstar Employee Review

1.0
Jun 8, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

401K match. Work life balance in pockets. Can learn basic investment.

Cons

Its an old ship with thousand holes and blind tech management is building a castle on top of it. Top Heavy - Directors, Head Of Technologies, Practice heads(ever heard of this?) , Senior Tech Managers, Managers, Tech Leads and what not! Crazy politics in tech organization. Even frameworks are chosen based on who is heading the department. Cartels recruiting from their own family and friends and placing them in no responsibility areas. 90% of resources does full time management nonsense in Chicago, and all s/w development is slowly moved to India and China. After few years everyone in Chicago will be directors and will direct each other :-) while all s/w development will move to India and China. A Listers are harassed to quit while C Listers are finding every opportunity to replace them with their D Lister friends. If you are a genuine guy interested in contribution and execution, you will not survive here for 2 years. I did not! Company hardly makes $900 million in revenue and every one here preaches as if they are running 100 Amazons in a 7 floor office. Management has no idea how to fix the mess and those who have, are sidelined and kicked.

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Morningstar Response
8y
There’s no doubt that running a company built over time, with many complex customer verticals, markets, and technology, can get messy! Morningstar is growing and continually stretching to build and scale the best global technology team and products out there. We’re sorry to hear about your experience and that it didn’t meet your expectations. We're moving fast to innovate, and our strategy is often not communicated with perfect clarity to all team members. That sounds like part of what we missed with you. We’re learning as we grow and will share your feedback with the technology team so that we do a better job communicating with all contributors at all levels of our tech organization. Thanks for your feedback.

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Pros

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Cons

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4.0
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Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Great benefits (e.g. 6% of salary 401K matching program, 6-week sabbatical after working 4 years). Good opportunities to switch roles within company. Most employees are great to work with.

Cons

Slightly lower pay relative to other companies. Management might be on a course of changing strategies across orgs too quickly, resulting in too many things breaking and failed outcomes. Removed 3 days a week in-office policy, which may lead to missed talent acquisition opportunities.

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