To elaborate on the title: The company DID NOT have anywhere near a 3.9 rating (I believe it was in the 1.0s or 2.0s), nor did it have 1500 reviews when I started working at this company. This was within the last year. The poor reviews and ratings were brought up by candidates multiple times while I was there, and given how they’ve been hurting to find people (for themselves and their clients) and the lack of ethical behavior at the company, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did “incentivize” employees. No self-respecting employee that knows anything of common decency/professionalism (more on that later) AND US laws would write a positive review of this company or those running it. Either that, or they are desperate for the money. This is possible— and if you are applying for a consulting job, they take anywhere from 20-40% (at one point I heard from colleagues that they rejected people if they didn’t make a profit on the higher end), but they never disclose that. Do yourself a favor and use that to negotiate when applying directly with “the client.” Don’t think of the “perk” of them paying for your visa as worth it. I knew some people who hated working there but were trapped because they were on visa that the company sponsored. Move to another country if you have to. This company is not worth it. Other cons: -Management telling staff to do things that are illegal in the US (and would have gone through with some if nobody spoke up), ie telling recruiters who are based internationally to record all US candidates without their consent (this was backtracked, but who knows). Huge issue if those candidates are in certain states and the recorder is in the US, but it could violate federal wiretapping laws in this case since the recorder is in another country. Then there were some things specific to my personal circumstance that I won’t disclose here that violated federal law (and I’m writing this now for a reason), and a specific case where very senior management told a manager in talent acquisition to look for someone “young” as a requirement (and you bet I have a screenshot of that suspicious direction). ADEA? Equality Act of 2010? Not to be found here, based on that snippet. Am I going to lodge a formal complaint? Of course not. I want nothing more to do with this company unless necessary, I’m just writing this so people know what they’re getting into. But if they do, I don’t say anything without receipts (that’s the difference between defamation and someone looking dumb for threatening to sue for defamation). I highly suggest anyone employed or who is considering accepting an offer from this company to do the same, if legally able (check this with an attorney or do some reading on this yourself before accepting an offer, if you really are that desperate. Tough economy, I know). -Work “culture”: as mentioned in the Pros, some colleagues are wonderful. Some you can learn some interesting things from. Others you wish you could report, but then realize the only people you could report them to are either worse or can/will do nothing. Saw one male employee interrupt and scream at a female manager when they were given a directive from higher up. That was fun (sarcastically), until I had to deal with that employee myself. The manager just smiled and in the end, did nothing. That’s the kind of behavior that is acceptable here. That’s also when I realized some Indian colleagues who told me this was Indian corporate culture, not American corporate culture, meant it. I don’t know if this is actually acceptable in India, but even in the most toxic American company, an employee who did that would be fired. Mind you, this screaming was about something that had been communicated with him multiple times before (and ignored), and the fact that this was confirmed and coming from the manager’s manager should have been enough. But no, he only listened when that manager’s manager (a man) supposedly berated him in a department meeting. Speaking of— getting berated in front of 50-100 people is not uncommon here. Being chastised in group chat for a mistake by colleagues (even if it’s the first time) is considered acceptable (even professional) on some teams. That’s not all— it even happens on external emails— which makes the company look bad, but who cares! Don’t bother going to a manager about it, you’ll be talked to as if you’re part of the problem for bringing up that this was inappropriate. Ego above all. Again, it depends on the colleague and team, but I had particiularly difficult ones. But if you enjoy that, you’ll love it here. If not, err on the side of caution and… avoid, just in case it happens to you. “But what if I follow all instructions perfectly?” Funny you say that. Workflows change based on the way the wind tickles the nose of management. Sometimes that means it changes every other week. Sometimes 3 times in one meeting. Have fun, you’re bound to trip up eventually. It’s only human. The last thing is this— some colleagues are very difficult to understand. Mind you, I grew up in a Spanish-speaking area and I had family friends with very thick Russian accents growing up, and I’ve worked in companies with people on my teams who were based in every continent (except the obvious one). Most of them were not fluent in English and had accents and I wasn’t fluent in Spanish/Arabic/French/Korean/Dutch/Afrikaans/Romanian/etc, but we made it work. If one person felt it was easier to communicate in writing and another felt it was easier to speak, one would type and the other would send voice memos. Easy peasy. Here? They don’t care what you want. Struggling to understand a certain colleague’s accent?They don’t care what you want. They care what they want. A compromise is not possible to them. Phone calls, phone calls, phone calls. Bringing me to the last point— the phrase that’s become more common recently of “this could’ve been an email” does not exist here. Expect a 30 minute meeting (or multiple) when it could be an email. Expect mandatory impromptu 1 hour department meeting during a “very busy week” where half consists of senior management chastising some employees (because their direct reports, the employees’ managers, can’t be trusted to do so effectively it seems— not that it works) for one part and rambling about workflow changes for the rest. Expect massive amounts of micromanaging but no accountability for certain parties (you know who). Side notes— PTO is not paid out for the year upfront (like some companies do). If you don’t have PTO, you will have to take leave without pay, you can’t proactively take PTO. They also monitor the time you spend on your work device, and supposedly you’re flagged if it’s under a certain number. Try to ChatGPT or fake something like that, Photon. (To the rest of my colleagues who were wonderful— I hope you find a place that treats you as well as you deserve.)
