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Tom Sawyer Software

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Tom Sawyer Software reviews

4.2

77% would recommend to a friend

(11 total reviews)

Brendan Madden

78% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

11 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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5.0
Aug 12, 2019

Manager

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Tom Sawyer Sawyer is really an interesting place to work. It has a terrific position in the graph and data visualization field and has been growing in new functional capabilities like graph database browsers, business process, and in model-based engineering. It’s plans however are much deeper and way beyond its current offerings. The company is being reengineered to grow into complex enterprise markets. This process has been underway for some time and it takes time. The company is experiencing very good growth with many new big name clients, plenty of interesting and complex services work, and frequent hard-driving software releases. The company is hiring in all of its offices and is opening several new offices as well. The staff is pretty international and friendly with lots of interesting support. It’s a pretty open frank place where people can speak up very openly. The company really does innovate very steadily and we receive frequent comments from our customers that they notice our hard work including our innovation, precision and attention to detail. The company is even reengineering the way it innovates, using its own software and adopting many modern trends in development to rethink things. The company tends to grow people from within and many people have been promoted. The company has many male and female managers and project leads. There is a pretty good gender balance in the company. The CEO is really very very bright and experienced and involved in ideas and leadership across a number of the departments. He is surprisingly open-minded and is changing and innovating the company quickly. But of course the company grows larger and many managers and staff are necessarily involved deeply to keep the place running smoothly. You can see that people work together pretty well in this place. People definitely work pretty hard as well. There isn’t a lot of spare staff and people sometimes have to wear multiple hats at least for a little while. This is not all bad though as it helps people to grow and learn to be flexible and learn new things. The company has definitely also been attentive to staff and has upgraded benefits and salaries across all of the offices. There is also good growth and it seems a very good future is possible. There is a lot of flexibility in work schedules, good telecommuting, good equipment, a lot of new software. If you’re good, work hard and earn a good reputation internally, you have a lot of flexibility. You will be promoted quickly and loaded up with projects if you can handle it. There is also a lot of room for career development. Of course this company has a lot of experienced people and you can learn a lot from them, but generally senior management tries to be flexible and move people quickly into new roles so they grow and remain engaged. I’ve seen many people sent back to school to earn advanced degrees and the company tries to provide loans and good support to help the staff. The company is in a creative and competitive field but it has a well-deserved reputation as a true pioneer in the graph field. It may have been the first our graph company formed in the United States more than twenty-five years ago. That can’t be an accident - and the fact that the company still cranks independently from multiple offices around the world. It’s a place that is what you make of it. I recommend this company as a very good growth company where you have the potential to learn many new things and be challenged.

Cons

There isn’t that much negative right now except that people are very busy :).

5.0
Jul 16, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked at Tom Sawyer Software as a Legal Assistant for around 1 year. This position was great as far as Legal Assistant positions go because you are given a lot more opportunity and growth than in a larger company. I was able to work closely with my Manager on many projects, which I do not believe would be possible at a larger law firm. The company itself is full of hardworking, impassioned people who are confident in their positions as well as extremely good-natured and welcoming. My manager was the best manager I have ever had. She was very well versed in IP and business law and very patient with me during my first few months of work, as I learned the ins and outs of my position. Additionally, while my background is not in software engineering, the software is unique and promising and the engineers are some of the most intelligent people I have met.

Cons

No cons. The reason I left was due to transportation costs. I was commuting from the city and the monetary and time loss due to the commute were very high.

2.0
Jan 11, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Medium-high compensations (if accorded from the beginning) Friendly international community Good policy about working remotely Friendly co-workers and bosses Challenging projects Big clients (Good for CV) Great place for learning new technologies but can get rusted on programming languages other than the one used. Practice english everyday (if english isn't your mother language).

Cons

CEO is not a boss, is a tyrant who insults and make feel everyone bad. As developer I didn't get any training and they expect me to be an expert on their software. The communication with my boss was almost null the first months Getting a raise is almost impossible or really small. No growing opportunities inside the company

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Tom Sawyer Software Response
7y
Thank you for acknowledging some of the elements that make Tom Sawyer Software a great place to work. In addition to your points, our other reviews cite our good work-life balance, flexible work hours, and great products. We offer terrific growth opportunities for new staff, with many instances of young engineers who exhibit leadership skills being promoted to managerial or product leadership roles within their first year or two working at the company. Regarding your feedback and advice to management, employees are expected to provide feedback while they are employed with us so that we have an opportunity to respond. We perform regular check-ins with all employees and view this as a two-way dialog in which both sides have an obligation to contribute to ensure a productive and satisfying employment relationship. Training and managing a remote, global workforce is a challenge faced by any modern company. We recently instituted regular product engineering training sessions, and developed a thorough training program for new product engineers. This new program will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Where possible, we also assign a local manager or manager with overlapping work hours. We agree there is room for continued improvement in the training of all staff, including managers, and clearly communicating possible career paths with each person. We review market compensation data and trends each year and make adjustments to salaries and benefits on an annual basis. We also make individual adjustments off-cycle when appropriate, such as on an employee’s first year anniversary, for outstanding performance, or other special circumstances. In many instances, off-cycle increases are initiated by the CEO. In your situation, we approved a significant off-cycle increase to support your request to move closer to the office and have a reduced commute time, and you were a recipient of our generous referral program. Mexico City is a dynamic city much like New York City, and it has been difficult to understand salary and hiring trends. We have performed numerous studies in attempts to improve salaries and benefits, but it is also changing rapidly and is hard to understand quickly. We strive to be fair, so we responded to Mexico City staff feedback about compensation at the beginning of 2018 by increasing the monthly grocery voucher benefit, applying above-inflation raises, supporting employee relocation, and establishing a generous work from home policy. Further, in early 2019, we announced significant salary adjustments for the entire Mexico City staff that was very well-received by the staff. The CEO was supportive and, in many cases, has been the instigator of these improvements. Based on your feedback, we will re-evaluate our practices related to overtime. Regarding conditions and management of funds in the Mexico office, our Employee Ethics policy that was communicated in June 2018 clearly states all employees are required to immediately report any “unethical, dishonest, misleading, fraudulent, or illegal behavior.” We have an open culture where everyone can communicate. We will investigate your claim but feel employees have an equal personal responsibility to their employer and expect staff to raise concerns right away. Like all of our global offices, we have onsite, local administrative management. Given the departure of our previous administrative associate in Mexico several months back, we have been actively recruiting for this position but it takes time to conduct interviews and replace a person for such a role. Regarding your comments about the CEO, we have many employees and returning employees who have worked with us for more than a decade, and some for two decades. We view this as a strong testament to our supportive and challenging company culture in which all voices are heard and staff are challenged to excel. Tom Sawyer Software has been in business for 28 years, under the same leadership. Achieving this level of success would not be possible without strong leadership, dedication, and equally, with support from employees. We can’t expect all employees, especially young individuals who are new to the workforce, to understand all of the challenges related to running a successful, global business with its many demands, but we are always open to questions and feedback. Your feedback is important and helps us to continually improve and make Tom Sawyer Software a great place to work.
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