Pros
Eze Castle is a good place to start if you are just out of college and haven't been accepted at any other companies. The pay is okay and you do get some pretty good benefits including healthcare, dental and a 401k. It's also a decent starter job if you want to get your feet wet in the tech industry. You build some solid debugging skills and learn your way around programs and get a good understanding of the software development life cycle.
Cons
Instead of a list of cons, here is a comparison between what is advertised in this job and the reality. The leadership development program is split into two groups, QA and GTS. I was in QA for two years and am describing my experience there, I cannot speak to GTS. 1) Advertised – You are a financial analyst who uses software Reality – You do 0 financial analysis, you test software for bugs and defects. If you are considering this position as a way into the finance industry, look elsewhere. This is a purely technical position. 2) Advertised - You are in training to become a ‘consultant’ Reality – ‘Consulting’ in this sense is not at all like the ‘Management Consulting’ you would find at a firm like Deloitte. At Eze you are a mix between account manager and tier 1 tech support. The stress level is very high as is their turnover rate. Most ‘consultants’ burn out within two years. 3) Advertised – You will only be in training X months. Reality – They originally told me 9 months, I was there close to two years. They originally told the next new hire group 15 months, my bet they’ll be there around 3 years. Whatever time they quote that you’ll be in QA, double it. 4) Advertised – We will build your skill set Reality – Truthfully, you will get incredibly good at understanding the Eze product. You will also likely emerge from QA with your Series 7. However, you will not build any transferable skills of value for any other company. You do not run meetings, scope projects, gather requirements, analyze business processes or interact with clients. This is the largest danger you’ll be taking at Eze. Committing at least two years of your life to a position that teaches you zero skills outside of a single company’s product suite is a serious career risk. The CON I have to mention – Eze itself is a decent enough company, they pay OK and do try to keep traditions and company culture alive. The one overwhelming con you must take into account is this. Except for one manager, the leadership of the QA division is utterly horrendous. There is zero transparency into management decisions and any attempts to improve the division from analysts are quickly crushed. You will stay late nearly every night not because you have work to do, but because everyone has to keep up appearances. You will not be rewarded for good work and instead be quickly reprimanded for minor mistakes. While I could go on, an ideal example is this. They fire one analyst about every three months for very questionable reasons. For instance, a friend of mine was fired and during his exit interview, they said one of the reasons was because on a Saturday when everyone was in the office working, he asked to go downstairs to the café to get a cup of coffee. I cannot say this enough, if you are smart enough to be hired at Eze, you are smart enough to be hired elsewhere and will be treated with the respect you deserve.
