Great people, but can feel like your voice isn't heard
Pros
By and large, the people who work here are fantastic - you will make lifelong friends. Work-life balance is very good for most teams, most people simply do their 8 hours and are encouraged to leave (note: I was not an hourly employee, my boss just actually cared that I went home and had time to myself). The location in Long Beach is great, very accessible via freeways and by public transit from LA (there's a Blue Line stop a 5-minute walk away). Lunch is provided every day and it is a really good time to socialize, many laughs were shared over LaserLunch. The customers really do love the product, which is always inspiring, especially for a product that is not interesting on its base level. Some newer upper-level managers are really making a lot of positive changes. My salary was in the normal range for my position.
Cons
While it's easy to have your voice heard, it's much much harder to see anything come of it - many of the managers aren't willing to change, either because their stuck in their ways or because THEIR manager is stuck in their ways. The company can be very nepotistic, with management positions given based more on simple seniority/closeness to the Wacker family and certain tasks being outsourced to companies owned by family members. On a similar note, there is somewhat of a cult surrounding the Wackers. I think Nien-Ling Wacker was a very impressive businessperson who had a great idea and built a strong, privately-owned company, and she should be celebrated by the employees, undoubtedly. Her husband, Chris Wacker, is now the CEO. However, this has led to many managers tiptoeing around Chris and I see little drive to push back against any ideas he has. There is a lot of turnover in the company, beyond the typical turnover found in software engineering. There is way too little vacation time, particularly for a company in the software industry. Many of the benefits are aimed at an older, career-focused employee base but neglect early/newer employees. This makes it hard to keep newer and younger employees. All of these factors have led to a strange age/experience gap where most people either seem to leave in 1-4 years (majority) or they have been at the company for 10+ years (minority).
