Great first (or even second) job out of college, but nothing more than hype overall
Pros
Free coffee, (diet) pop, and snacks (M&Ms, pretzel sticks), bagels and orange juice during Monday Morning Meetings. The culture is very unique. There are parties, casual dress (literally jeans and a T-shirt), a laid back environment, friendly people, "welcome to work day", and no micromanaging (depending on department). There are a lot of perks like on-site haircuts, massages, car washes, on-site health center, fitness centers, volleyball court, and tennis courts. Some of these perks can encourage team building and provide stress relief from your normal day-to-day duties. The work/life balance can be better than most software companies, depending on your department/position. It is usually very easy to receive time off. Sabbaticals are also available for long-tenured employees. This is a great place to kick off your career or as a younger professional's second job out of college. It's also great for individuals that wish to take part in the aforementioned culture and perks.
Cons
Compensation is well below market average. Hyland expects the culture and fringe benefits to make up for and justify it. While the perks are good, they don't pay the bills nor did we invest in an education to be paid about 20-35% below market just to have the opportunity to play volleyball at work or ride cute, cheap bikes around the tiny campus (for example) and not taking part in them does not increase your pay. Pay is also completely arbitrary (aka, there are no pay grades) and pay raises don't keep up with continued rising costs let alone cost of living increases. While the profit sharing and bonuses are nice, it feels like we don't get a fair cut of it. Pay is not increased depending on level of education/experience either. Nepotism and cliques, which while common in the real world, can make working at Hyland feel like Junior High or High School all over again in some ways. It's particularly bad because of the lack of IT opportunities in Northeast Ohio, it is very difficult to recruit superior talent and thus, many of the hires are straight out of college or referrals. Additionally, it seems that this significantly plays into promotions/advancement (many promotions are due to strictly longevity with Hyland, more on that later). The environment can lack professionalism, can be noisy at times, and too distracting (worse than at other places). Not great for advancing career nor ideal for those with a seasoned resume. It all depends on your department's management, but it seems too many people are being promoted that shouldn't be. Some departments over promote, others don't promote often enough. People with excellent credentials/experience can get passed over for someone that has been at the company longer or who are friends with (or are family of) their manager/VP/C-level. There are also managers/VPs that don't have the proper education/credentials to run their respective departments/teams but got there strictly by longevity with the company and by drinking the kool-aid. Additionally, if you have an advanced degree (or any degree at all), it's totally worthless because Hyland doesn't hesitate to hire employees straight out of high school (and most likely for similar pay). They even hire interns who are still in high school (usually those who are related to other Hylanders), which kills the company's budget because a lot of them don't have meaningful work to do. You also can get "pigeonholed" into your position, as you will be unable to advance your technical skill set due to the type of work your position calls for, unless you can and are willing to switch teams/departments, provided your manager (or upper level management) approves it. Some teams need additional help but the company can take way too long to hire someone (usually due to the slow speed of HR or upper management only caring about the bottom line). This alone can stress out employees and make them not feel valued, despite all the "perks" and "culture" that is supposed to offset it. Lackluster benefits, as they used to be better even 3 years ago. Health insurance is the main culprit as they've gone into cost cutting/saving mode with only one high deductible plan (only good if you don't get sick!), even though revenue is still growing by double digits yearly! Product direction is nonexistent. There is no clear vision for OnBase other than to constantly keep adding features for customers but the VPs won't figure out how to leverage/combine great ideas into a powerful, robust solution that can make OnBase even stronger and be more scalable in the long haul (keep it more simple).
