Pros
- Fairly mature engineering culture, so you may have the opportunity work with very smart people, learn a lot and gain hands on experience with modern technologies - Fantastic location on top of public transit hub
Cons
- Compensation is relatively poor and management will not address the issue; for months I had open conversations with my manager and director indicating that I was being compensated at about 80% of market rate and was concerned about that. I gave them a chance to address the concerns and for months I was told that they were working on it, but I left the company feeling like they never would have adequately addressed my concerns - Offshore model is ingrained in the company's DNA, which surfaces in the form of imposing off-hour meetings and on-shore resources serving as first-line support and troubleshooting - Poor work-life balance; not only did the meetings with offshore impose significantly on my personal life, but my manager called me on weekends and evenings on multiple occasions for production support. In order to be promoted, you need to put in the extra hours and I observed that the more senior one became, the more their work-life balance suffered. Pager duty on my team. - Mediocrity is fully accepted; I worked with multiple under-producing teammates at CDK and they were not held accountable, which felt like a toxic culture to me. A Senior Engineer on my team became like an elephant in the room for the entire team (manager included) and yet, I'm sure he's still there collecting paychecks to this day - Consistently asked to take technical shortcuts due to unrealistic business deadlines; this was true on almost every project at almost every turn - Business often dictates project timelines and technical solutions without regard for engineering input; plus my engineering manager and product owner bickered like a married couple frequently It seemed like almost everyone I worked with was dissatisfied in their position and many of them sought advice on how they themselves could find a way to leave the company; moving to a company where people don't hate their jobs and the company actually cares about employees was a revelation.