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      Focus School Software

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      Focus School Software reviews

      4.1

      81% would recommend to a friend

      (39 total reviews)
      avatar

      Andrew Schmadeke

      91% approve of CEO

      79% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.2

      Culture & values

      4.1

      Diversity & inclusion

      4.1

      Work/Life balance

      3.9

      Compensation and benefits

      3.7

      Senior management

      3.6

      Career opportunities

      Focus School Software has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 39 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Focus School Software employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      39 reviews
      1.0
      Oct 10, 2018

      For the love of all things sane, just close this tab and move on

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Some things like coffee are provided for free Lots of places in walking distance to go to lunch If you are new to the industry this can be a great place to start as a developer and hone your skills if you are a self motivator Entry level technical positions have fairly good pay At least when I worked there, I worked with some of the brightest and nicest people (almost exclusively technical staff) 2 of the directors know what they are doing

      Cons

      Note: the following is my opinion based on time-frame I was employed Upper management seemed to regularly swing by minutes before leaving and ask you to take on a large task ... with the expectation that it gets done at that moment or the following day and most likely having known about it for weeks before mentioning it. Nearly no communication from the top, the rumor mill was nearly the only connection and the only surprises were the ones that made you want to quit. Though not personally experiencing it thanks to setting up good boundaries and a stroke of luck, many peers claimed to be called upon at night to fix something before the next school day. So many half truths or blatant lies from upper management (examples: Gamers dream breakroom! == old Foosball table in a room where the extra furniture is kept. OR Paid parking downtown! == 4 blocks away) Good ideas are ignored or you are strung along while the CEO finds someone he is closer with to take the idea from you Seemed like hard workers were more likely to be taken advantage of rather than rewarded In development, a high volume of closed issues/tickets with bad code seemed to be praised while moderate to good code for moderate levels of closed tickets/issues seemed to be frowned upon. The testers seemed to be expected to work fast with little to no information and nobody but the testers seemed to care if the tests fail, unless of course, a customer complains ... Pay for those actually skilled and worth their job title (with exception of junior level technical staff) was low Highly lacking when it comes to on-boarding

      avatar
      Focus School Software Response
      7y
      Dear Anonymous Employee, It is always hurts to find that a former employee has left with a bad taste in their mouth. I am sorry that we did not meet your expectations with our game room (you forgot to mention the new popcorn machine and pool table) and parking. I understand that our current parking options, which are actually two to three blocks away are not the most convenient. Unfortunately, when the parking garage across the street was demolished We were given two weeks to find new parking for 100+ people. While we patiently wait on several lists this is the best option currently available. I try to view it as just part of the downtown lifestyle and an excuse to get some exercise, and at the end of day I am grateful that Focus pays for it. I am sorry you did not have a positive experience with Focus. We will take your comments into consideration. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Thank you kindly, Steven Harnois Director of Operations
      4.0
      Jun 23, 2018

      Overall good place

      Software architect
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I'm going to try to focus on some pros that I haven't seen here. Focus is an established company, it's NOT one of those startups where you juggle the roles of sys admin, programmer, tester, talking to customers and working 60 hour weeks (my previous job). We have a proper development process where we make a branch for each feature or bug. We have "some" (emphasis on some) testing on the programming side. And the QA team also test our branches to ensure our customers are happy. Focus hires people with education experience to train our software and various other roles, so we have people inside the company that we can question about whatever we're developing. One of the biggest hurdles when designing and developing software is that programmers don't know what the customer wants. This is not the case with Focus "for the most part" because we can just ask these experts, so that we can make the best product possible. And that is a big win working here in my opinion. I've worked here just over 4 years and essentially most issues I had with the development side of Focus have changed for the better. Focus respects that you work on the clock. Afterwards they don't really bother you unless it's an emergency. So good work life balance. If you want something like an extra monitor or keyboard, they will order it for you. Customers always pay their bills to Focus since it comes from the government, so as long as Focus keeps improving, some other Software Company shouldn't put us out of business anytime soon. There's always an interesting discussion in the office. We have a pool table and dart board... it's a joy to work here.

      Cons

      I was offered a higher salary job (for a lower title/position) last year because of a referral from prior co-worker and I thought if I stayed here, I'd at least make the same amount as they offered me and here I am a year later still not making that much. While I did get a raise, it is still less than I was offered a year ago. I was also offered a job in Washington DC which again was yet another referral from a co-worker. I have worked at Focus for about 4 full years and I still don't feel like my skills are recognized for their full potential or properly put to use. While I think the salary is fair for the work I put out, it would certainly be nice if the company had a more tailored path for me that would make sense for me to be paid more and really feel more proud of the work I do. And really it's not so much about the money, it's more about the fact that I had the connection with my previous employer and co-workers that I don't feel present with Focus. I honestly haven't made up my mind if I will continue working here or not because of this. I'm kind of on the fence because the pros are so good. I guess you could also say maybe the salary is lower than you'd get elsewhere or maybe not. As a first job, you'd probably get paid well here. But not if you have experience. This is a good place to get your foot in the door. Either way the pros really help outweigh the cons relative to other companies. Besides salary, it's hard to argue any other cons about Focus itself. I've advocated for testing via code for years now and we actually do it to an extent now, but it took way too long for the company to officially commit to doing it and we could still do much better. Everything here happens so slow. I've seen times where the CEO gets all the developers together like we are finally going to get something done, just to be let down that there were no follow up meetings to make sure the goals were accomplished. The goals are made and then somehow just vanish... and no one ever hears about them again or maybe the same goals are made at some later date.

      avatar
      Focus School Software Response
      7y
      Thank you for your thorough review. If you feel like your salary need a review, please bring it to my attention. Steven Harnois Director of Operations
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      ReviewsFocus School Software reviews

      Glassdoor has 39 Focus School Software reviews submitted anonymously by Focus School Software employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Focus School Software is right for you.