Not a tech company for programmers
Pros
- If you are very interested in health policy and would like to learn programming, this might be a good choice for you. - Intelligent employee and alumni. - New HR team on board since late 2016 - they try to improve by adding some employee benefits.
Cons
- Unlike other bay area companies, Acumen is NOT a tech company. For programmers, the skills you learned here are out-dated and not transferable to other tech companies. They hire and train people how to program before actually doing the programming work. A programmer don't even need to know how to program. Again, proves this is not a tech company. - Frequent organization restructure: team structure changes frequently without reason or sign, because the employee are not valued and respected here. The upper management do not care your career path, they just want you to get things done. Its not rare to work with more than 2 managers in less than 1 year. - Micromanagement: young employee with little experience were promoted to managers resulting in micro and sometimes unethical management. Poorly-planned management causes employee to work at last minute before every deadline. Most managers were promoted from analyst - they do not hire experienced managers outside. The pay is too low to attract any. - Way below market salary for a programmer in Bay Area. In addition, base salary is all you get. The company claimed to provide 5% 401k match, but vested in 4 years (employee get NOTHING in the first 2 years). A lot of people left in less than 2 years. - No work-life balance. Once you get by the first few months and become 'handy', the managers may dump you lots of work and ask you to work at evenings, weekends and even during holidays. Yes, the managers do talk to you and ask you to work after hours, like a commander. Not professional at all. - High turnover: The above results in high-turnover rate, especially for programmers. This is an infinite loop, getting worse and worse. Overall, the company treats employee a disposable resource and doesn't value their contribution.