- Culture—certain staff members at the executive/management level make it clear that you are widget #1063 in their eyes. Not uncommon for lower level staff to bond over being pressured to exceed billable hours during personal emergencies--not a good sign. Inappropriate, unprofessional behavior by staff is ignored (things that would make any HR professional recoil), creating a culture of “stick your head in the sand and ignore it, or leave.” Summit even does the whole “we are a family” silliness, which just comes across as a way of sidestepping legitimate concerns.
- Uncompetitive salary and benefits—in a field of work with basically no unemployment, pay is around 10-25% below competitors’ total comp. Very little incentive to stay at Summit for more than 1-1.5 years. Limited structured training. Small professional development stipend, especially relative to competitor firms. Benefits are average. Competitor firms’ offer better benefits + fairer pay, i.e., expected to use your personal phone for work but Summit gives no phone stipend.
- Experience is very team-dependent—on some teams, it’s easy to go months (or years) without serious code QC, leading to skill stagnation + very late nights when mistakes are finally caught. Since Summit is a small company, the portfolio of available work is also small. It’s easy to get siloed.
