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Digital Signal

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Digital Signal reviews

2.6

32% would recommend to a friend

(28 total reviews)

David Guttadauro

23% approve of CEO

17% positive business outlook

Digital Signal has an employee rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, based on 28 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Digital Signal employee rating is 32% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

28 reviews
3.0
Jul 29, 2015

Truth in Tough Times

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

DSC just had a harsh layoff, and lots of people are justifiably angry. But there’s lots being thrown around that isn’t true. DSC has won several major, multimillion dollar contracts the past few years. Business development efforts and potential wins have accelerated 10X the past few months, and that’s because the tech is just about there. Yes, there are bugs, but where there’s brand new tech, there’s bugs: the squashing is aggressive, and the system performance is undeniable, well beyond anything else out there, and getting better. Senior management takes on the biggest challenges in the industry, and engineering staff are brilliant enough to consistently solve problems no one else has. Excellent performers are recognized one-on-one, in meetings, via formal awards, and with salaries, promotions and raises well beyond industry average. DSC has always been an extremely dynamic company with potential. Investors have seen this and have poured in gobs of money as a result.

Cons

Product development methodology is sometimes unorthodox: if you have trouble working outside the box and need rigid development structures and chains of command, you’d have a tough time dealing with DSC these past few years. The company fostered a less-structured, fast-paced environment to eliminate bureaucracy and enable creativity, quick reaction to new info, and ultimately results. Several major products were successfully developed in a fraction of the time a more classical approach would have allowed. Processes tightened significantly as production began and this trend will continue in manufacturing if the company makes it through this rough patch and scales. DSC is going through a very challenging period that many startups experience. Predicting sales ramp rates for brand new tech is hard, and backed by major investor confidence, the company staffed up too quickly. The recent layoffs were harshly executed, and many great people were lost, but the company needed to correct. Times are difficult, but many major business opportunities are actively being worked. Time will tell how successful DSC will be in landing and executing these.

1.0
Jul 24, 2015

Amatuer Hour

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is great, 20% above market. Benefits are outstanding, except you need to give 2 weeks notice before taking vacatons. Free lunch Fridays, casual dress code, flex hours. Challenging and interesting work.

Cons

Management is uncomfortable making decisions, always choosing to delay a project, won't take any risks. Management is self-serving, secretive, takes credit for success of employees. Root cause is poor hiring practices. CEO is a clown, used to intall security cameras so now runs a high-tech engineering product biometric security company?. CFO/COO was refugee from Blackboard.com as is IT guy, VP Bus Dev, VP Legal etc. New CFO was from beekeeping company. Seriously? No management understands product development or manufacturing normal practiced. Hiring mostly from big companies like General Dynamics after they layoff. Everybody totally obedient to executives or else just get fired with no payout, not even vacation. Layoff of 75 employees out of 150 on yesterday, after 19 employee layoff 3 months ago, when the CEO said layoff is over, company is financially secure,etc. so cannot trust management. Product is very much improved, but sale price is way 10X higher compared with competition, the sales people have no experience or contacts in the industry and cannot sell the product. Product is way buggy, fails in field demos, very much embarrassing. There are no sales expected for years, so there will be more layoffs or attrition as slowly goes down the toilet.

5.0
Jul 24, 2015

The Best Management Around

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked at DSC for a few years as an Engineer, and I have to say, their management was extremely talented. They were very effective at pulling in more funding, and even though we didn't ship many products while I was there, we were always assured of our market value. I think the last big meeting I was at, they said we had a valuation close to $300 million dollars and growing. So there was certainly no shortage of money. That being said, they were very efficient at handling money. They were very generous in giving stock options, and they said I would make out in the end. The raises were so much for us engineers, but we were assured it was only so we don't overspend. I only got at most 4% a year, so I can only assume the same was true for upper management. Raises also depended on what they expected and meeting those expectations, so they had really high expectations for us. I'm pretty sure the CEO only took a $1/year because he was so confident in the company. He really tried to not waste money, and I was quite impressed. The work itself was very fascinating, and it really kept my attention. I really enjoyed my co-workers, and especially management. Some would call it micro-managing, but I called it just good old making sure I'm not making mistakes. In fact, whenever my manager or the VP of engineering was not around to check up on me, I just didn't feel confident in my work. I had a lot of good and innovative ideas, and it seems it was the right environment to do something nobody else had done before. Management had a laser focus on getting the next software release out, so often times they didn't want to add any improvements because it might add some bugs. It was good advice. I just wish they had done more than one software release when I was there. They always said they were releasing 0.8, but it kept getting delayed. They're probably on 2.0 by now. I'd really like to complement HR. They were just outstanding. I really felt they were concerned about the employees and they had a strong disconnect from upper management and the CEO. So I feel confident if there ever was a complaint like "The CEO is making this a hostile work environment!" or "The CEO threatened to not give me a raise because I didn't give him my sandwich!" or "The CEO threatened to punch me in the face when I disagreed with him!", HR would have promptly handled it and informed the Board of Directors. They were also very diligent in knowing what was going on in the company, not just taking what the CEO and CFO told them.

Cons

Cons? Seriously? It's the best company ever. Biggest mistake of my life when I left. I saw another opportunity, and I thought the grass was greener on the other side, but it isn't. I wanted to reapply, but they don't seem to have any job postings as of today. In ten years, when it's stock is soaring, I'll still be sour about making the mistake to leave. If only I could be so luck to still be working there.

Viewing 13 - 15 of 28 Reviews

Glassdoor has 31 Digital Signal reviews submitted anonymously by Digital Signal employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Digital Signal is right for you.