Once a great company for ambitious engineers, took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2020
Pros
Hazelcast started out in 2013 as a company with a beloved product, ambitious goals, and an engineering culture second to none. The best low-level Java experts flocked to it, joining the original Turkish team. The original team set the tone of warm, honest respect for the colleague, while also brimming with enthusiasm to make a product that was great both at the engineering level and for the end-user. It used to be an exhilarating pleasure to work for Hazelcast. Many of these cultural moments reverberate through the company to this day, as a dying echo of the beloved past.
Cons
In 2020, after a change of management, the great culture started dissipating. Mutual trust was replaced with strict regulation imposed top-down. People were made to sign documents about policies they didn't agree with; only lip service was paid to their gripes. The encouragement to speak your mind was replaced by a policy that you should better hold your tongue, lest someone get offended. Etc. The product of the company was left adrift, innovation came to a freeze, while effort was redirected into building the company's superficial image (mission/vision statement, visual branding, messaging and narrative). These changes resulted in the loss of all the best reasons to join Hazelcast today. You can expect a menial job with a meager compensation package. Anything you may have read about the greatness of Hazelcast before 2020 no longer exists and almost all the people who made it that way are gone by now.
