Great place to learn - Platform Software Engineer WillowTree Employee Review

4.0
Nov 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you're a new college grad or a junior engineer then WillowTree is an amazing place to start your career. You'll work with some very smart and talented people on projects that can reach millions of users. WillowTree has some of the kindest and most helpful people working at it and that's its true strength.

Cons

Once you hit mid-level you have to seriously consider if it's worth staying long term. This is mainly because the grind to senior level is slow and pay is pretty mediocre for anyone between junior and senior level. By the time you've spent a year or two as a mid-level engineer at WillowTree you're capable of getting a senior position at another company that pays significantly more. The promotion process lacks a lot of transparency and is infrequent. Basically if a group of engineering directors don't think you're ready for promotion then it's a minimum of 6 months and up to a year until you have another chance at a promotion or pay increase.

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WillowTree Response
5y
Thanks for your review and kind comments. One of our core goals is to be a great place to land out of college/grad school and really grow your skills working on global applications for brand name clients. Sorry to hear you feel our promotion process isn't transparent or clear. We do promotions twice a year (large group at end of year and smaller group of mid-year), and we have rolled out very detailed rubrics for each position. In the Dec 2020 promotions cycle we made 105 promotions, recognizing many of our incredible team members. I would highly encourage you to swing by my weekly office hours to take me through how you think that process is falling short. It's absolutely vital that we have a long-career path for our team, and would like to work with you to figure out how to make that better and clearer. - Tobias

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5.0
May 29, 2025
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CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

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Cons

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3.0
May 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of really nice, and smart people who are very collaborative and excited to share their knowledge. This is not a prestigious place to work, so I was a bit surprised by just how smart and competent people are at WillowTree or TELUS Digital, whatever our name is. The offices are great and the office culture is ridiculously good. Huge shoutout to the employees (it's def not upper management) who go out of their way to make the office culture great. Depending on what project you're on, it can be a pretty chill place to work. If you're early in your career and need experience, the variety of projects makes this a genuinely good opportunity.

Cons

The biggest con is the compensation. It's so terrible, and far below the industry standard that I don't really see how anyone could stay here long term. They don't give raises, no one is getting promotions. There's also quite a lot of restructuring going on, and very poor communication about it. Which is par for the course in the tech industry at this point, but worth noting. It feels relatively stable for now, but I really have trouble seeing how their tech services division is going to survive as AI decreases the cost to build software. Plus, tech services as part of TELUS Digital doesn't really make any sense long term. It's a contact center business with a bunch of people that randomly make expensive mobile apps? It seems to be making enough money for now to keep going, but I feel like that could change any moment.

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