APCON reviews

Chaotic and unrealistic schedules make it difficult to succeed. Even if additional features are added to the product, it is "late" if the original unrealistic date is not met. Product development is based on the feature of the day that springs from the CEO's head. Nobody in engineering is allowed to talk to customers and the process used to derive the features is opaque. Attempts to improve the process are viewed with hostility. Management (mostly due to the CEO who owns the whole place) cannot bring themselves to trust most of their employees and constantly treat them like they are trying to cheat the company when the reality is that they are simply trying to do good work. It is a very difficult environment. Ideas are not welcomed and if you make very many suggestions, you end up on a corrective action plan. People are put in information silos and attempts are made to prevent them from talking to each other, so it's often difficult to get the information you need to do your job. Access to information on servers is very restricted, often to what is a ridiculous degree. In spite of HR's comments here in response to another (spot-on) review, HR does not help the employees and cannot be trusted with anything. HR has run off good employees based on a single off-hand remark. Corrective action plans with vague objectives are implemented with frightening frequency.

- The biggest con is that the CEO. I believe he has narcissistic personality disorder - I'm being very serious when I say this. He's a bully. I've seen directors and employees disagree with him or challenge him in meetings and watched them get fired a week later. If you want to last here, you must take a role of subservience and always do what he asks. - The CEO owns and controls 100% of the company. - The CEO usually works three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. - The CEO has never worn a mask in the office during COVID. - There is a significant amount of turnover at this company. When I first started working there, there were nine directors. There are now three. The CEO fired two and the others quit. The CEO is controlling and demanding making him very hard to work with. - Most engineers last between 2-3 years before leaving. 15 people left or were fired during my time there. This might not sound like a lot, but there are only 100 people at APCON. - The company is male-focused. 75% of the company is male, 25% is female. - The average age of APCON employees is 40+. There are very few employees in the 20 - 30 bracket. This is an older company. - There are unvaccinated employees working in the office. - APCON is very understaffed. As people leave and are not replaced, you will be asked to take on their responsibilities. - The CEO does not believe in remote work. APCON will never be a hybrid or remote first workplace. - APCON is not in "growth mode". It's in "stasis mode". This means it's not trying to beat its competition in sales or technology - it's trying to be equivalent to its competition. - APCON is a pretty sleepy place. Most of the tenured staff have parked and checked out career-wise. It does not have a young, vibrant culture where most of its employees are trying to innovate. For the most part, the directors and middle management are very happy with how things operate. - The pay and benefits are on the average to low side for its engineers. APCON pays decently for new grads and inexperienced developers, and very poorly for mid-level and senior-level developers.