They believe they hold themselves to a higher standard, but in the end they are not doing better. I'm probably jaded because I worked for a competitor (Picwell), and that company was fantastic. We built a fantastic tool that actually made my life and thousands of other people's lives a little bit better every year. Jellyvision purchased this company. They said they really wanted the employees and the products.
JV had mediocre designers. The UI/UX of their products was pretty poor. They promptly steamrolled our designer and reworked our tool, making it a little uglier and harder to use with every pass. This was very annoying to watch. Ok, so most of their design team is deeply mediocre, except for the one who worked for Picwell originally.
When they acquired us, they downgraded everyone's experience levels. I had around 5 years of experience and they said I was an entry-level developer. I tried to work with them and earn a promotion. It went nowhere. They did a reorg, and I got put on a new team building a greenfield project that I had no experience working on. Seems like a strange choice, but the manager and senior engineer on this team were great and I actually learned a ton and had fun. Until the layoff.
To be fair, they gave 5 months notice and a decent amount of severance. But I wanted a job and recognition for my work and my overall experience was that I did not end up with those. The vibes at company gathering were also extra-culty. I think I was laid off because I didn't feel comfortable with the cult-like vibes and I did not drink the Kool-aid.
