Lots of smart people but over-politicized
Pros
I respected 60-70% of the people I work with but the rest are either dead weight or playing unnecessary politics. On an average I work 50-55 hours a week, which compared to what I was doing earlier is pretty good. In fact I think I'm probably at the higher end in my group... this speaks to good work-life balance. Oh the alternate day bagels were nice.
Cons
Here are some of the biggest challenges at Guidewire: 1. The technology platform is prehistoric and developing quality applications rapidly is close to impossible 2. The learning curve is incredibly steep for engineers, consultants and customers 3. The general apathy towards investing in existing products and chasing down new revenue opportunities 4. Any group not involved in new revenue opportunities is largely ignored, even though we're the bread and butter of the organization 5. The leadership in Engineering, Marketing and Services don't seem to have management experience and don't realize the far reaching implications of decisions 6. The significant amount of mistrust between product teams is pretty astounding. 7. The PMO organization is over-empowered neutering Engineering and Product Management to some extent 8. Complete lack of trust in the QA organization 9. Software is delivered with a significant number of critical bugs I ran into most of these issues as a cross functional leader engaged with number of these groups. I've been at Guidewire for a long time and I've seen the culture that was in place set firmly aside, which included innovation and agility.
