Pros
Met a couple of nice people who have become good friends (all of them have left of course). The senior management are a great way to learn how NOT to manage a company and what NOT to do. So I have learnt a lot from them.
Cons
Everything else that's not in pros is a con. You cannot work at blur Group without losing a part of your sanity and your hope. During my time at this company, I have seen about 60 people leave, offices close, and the company shares fall unbelievably low. The bi-weekly two hour pizza lunches that the CEO gives is a platform for his egotist speeches. The pizza lunches also take away precious work time, but still the management expect delivery of work on time. On one of the lunches, there was a software deployment scheduled for 4pm in the afternoon. Instead of letting the developers go test the changes that they have made and make sure that everything is ok, he made them sit down for the pizza lunch. Even though the engineering manager advised that the release would be delayed. However, he did not heed the advice and still expected the deployment to happen on time. He also likes to play his favorite song of the period on the speakers at full blast expecting everyone to enjoy it. The CEO also claims to not like 'silos' so has everyone sitting in an open plan office. The office area has no meeting rooms either. However, when he invites investors or does a talk, he expects there to be utter silence in the whole of the office, otherwise there's a rampage of emotion from him. The senior management are akin to a comedy club of inefficiency and detrimental development. Especially on the tech side. Don't expect to get any requirements or scope for the work that you need to do. Expect to know what to do, then get it wrong anyway because the bosses changed their mind, guess your way through their minds, have it thrown out the window, then they demand it anyway, work on it again, and then make a bunch of changes, and hopefully maybe it will see the light of day. The pay is terrible compared to the market rate. They pull you in with promises of personal development and promotions, but fail to deliver on any of it. There is no notion of flexible time or overtime pay. There were many night time deployments, and many times where some of the developers had to work for 12 hours +. However, they were still expected to be at their desks at 9am sharp the next day. Did I mention that there was no extra pay either? Speaking of 9am, EVERYONE had to be at their desks at 9am sharp, and must leave only after 1800. Most people ended up working from 0830 till 1830 due to public transport and this rule. Many of the reviews that I have read here of 4 stars and above, are reviews by people who are 'asked' to do so by the management so that they appear as a good company on Glassdoor. Or they are in love with the CEO. I do not include my time at this company in my CV anymore as it's better to say that you have been travelling rather than say that you have worked at this company. After this review, I would like to never be associated with it again. I have rated 'career opportunities' as 4 stars, since this experience taught me what not to look for in a company, what to avoid, etc. That was very helpful. I will not be making the same mistake again.
