Pros
When I started, I enjoyed working for the company even though it had its hiccups but it seemed like they had a strong vision and plan for the future of the company. Keyword: seemed. They’ve changed track on what the company is going to do so many times in the last year and a half it’s exhausting trying to keep up. They also have a good, fun culture. Most of the people that work there are friendly and welcoming and willing to help out or point you in the right direction if you need help with something. I always felt respected by my colleagues and felt I could trust them. The overall benefits package was standard and decent - okay health insurance and you accrue 10 hours of PTO each month. The ability to work from home (pre-COVID19) was a nice benefit and they are pretty laid back as long as you get your work done, which makes for a good work-life balance. For the most part, they treated employees like adults. At first. They also do care about getting you the tools and resources you need to do your job and provide adequate equipment.
Cons
Derive Systems is super slow to release any functional products or features but wants to keep potential customers on the hook for years for technology they’ll never get. The leadership team is running around and trying to figure out what’s not working but they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again and expect different results. They’re slapping bandaids on serious problems and pointing their fingers at the teams that actually do their jobs. They know what the problem is, they just refuse to admit it and address it. Surely by changing everything else in the company, it’ll just solve itself. Their values of empowerment, innovation, agility, precision, and passion are gigantic jokes. There is no sense of empowerment or if an employee is trying to use their authority in their department, they’re axed - so this is a great place to work if you’re not good at what you do but can tell leadership exactly what they want to hear. Innovation…. Well, the fact that they haven’t released a new product in several years pretty much speaks for itself. They’re precise in their ability to make the worst financial decisions possible. And they’re passionate about driving this company into the ground. The only thing they value is creating a viable product so the board can make back their money and give their friends a good payout. There’s another review on here that says “CEO and leadership team fail to listen to employee feedback.” I would have stopped at the CEO and leadership team fail. During my time here, they had three CEOs, two CTOs, and two CMOs. Seems stable. I have been at companies with poor leadership before, but this place is something else. I truly do not think anyone in the higher up positions knows where this company is going or has a plan in place to get there. I heard one of the c-suite people say that one of the product plans was a “recipe for disaster” and I couldn’t agree more. The only good one of the bunch is Richard as he seemed to be honest, transparent, and made sure people knew what was going on as much as he could. Richard treated everyone with respect and treated them like a person, not just a number on a company roster. If the leadership team had more people like him, they might be able to salvage things. If you must join this company, which you probably won’t as they can’t afford to hire anyone or give their current employees raises, try to join as a contractor or consultant or wait a few months for a c-suite position to open up again. As a contractor, they’ll treat you so much better and pay you better than they do their own employees. You could do literally nothing and push projects back week after week but the leadership team will still tell everyone how amazing and smart you are even if you’re pretty much lighting the company’s money on fire.
