The company is de-centralized, and there is a significant disconnect between the branch offices and the corporate headquarters. This, combined with its increasing size, has lead to a culture that is slow to adapt to the changing needs of knowledge workers. Turnover is painfully high in the first three years. Because each of the branch offices is run like an independent business, with its own P&L and a great deal of autonomy given to the District Manager, often branches will develop work-arounds due to the extremely slow development of software solutions from the corporate office.
Even though the word "International" is in the name, this isn't somewhere to work if you're looking to get moved to a foreign office. They prefer to have the people at the branch offices be local, and have local knowledge. While this is great for the company, sometimes new employees find themselves frustrated when they thought there would be more opportunity for international placement.
Software development is referred to as "IS" and is the red-headed stepchild of the organization. They are relegated to their own building, but are forced to follow the same code of conduct as the rest of the organization. It is hard to find truly innovative developers who want to wear a tie or are okay with not leaving a conference room until the white board it spotless. The pay is also very low compared to other software companies in Seattle, and the result is often that the people in those roles either do not stay long or stay because they can't get hired elsewhere. The peer experience in this group is very poor, and it is hard to feel like you are learning or growing your skills as software development engineer.
