Relativity Software Engineer reviews

3.6

59% would recommend to a friend

(48 total reviews)
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Phil Saunders

59% approve of CEO

59% positive business outlook

Software Engineer employees have rated Relativity with 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 48 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. Relativity is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

48 reviews
1.0
Sep 22, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compensation is about the only thing good there.

Cons

Relativity looks really great on paper. But once you pull back just a little you will see its true colors. For starters, most positions you must pass the RCA. This test is made intentionally difficult although it really doesn't need to be. They will lie to you during ur recruitment as they lied to me about the test. The exact words I was told: "Almost everyone passes, we have classes to teach you, and if you pay attention you will have no problem with it". Fast forward to my first week, watched 3 people get walked out after their test. They only provide two classes, and at almost every point the instructor will state "Don't worry this wont be on the exam". So now that the only two classes are completely useless. They send you off on your own to just figure out how to study and what to study. This is due to their team creating the exam wanting it to be extremely difficult, so they wont actually tell you whats on the test or what specifically to study. If you ask the testing team, they will not give you any answers. The mot information they give you is a quizlets that other test takers have made in past exams. So you are again not even sure if it's the right material to study. The only other piece of advice I got was read through the admin manual ... which is over 800 pages. I am not complaining because I failed. I passed the first attempt, but having to sit in "Rookie cove" while people are frantically studying for weeks completely stressed out, I think everyone should know what they are getting themselves into. This is how they will treat you upon arriving at this company, and it a complete shame! I was honestly so close to quitting just after the first few week in disgust. Onto the job itself, from what many have told me at the company, and my experience included. It does really matter what team you are on, to your experience at the company. When I started on my team an engineer was immediately fired. From their things will move at a complete snail pace. Almost nothing can get done since you have to communicate with multiple teams, that cannot deploy anything due to their insane deployment methodology. If you want an API or API change ... good luck maybe next year if your are lucky. Then moving onto how their APIs actually work and function is a complete and utter mess. My time there the only focus of the company was Aero, so my team didn't matter at all. There were constant talks about my team being absorbed into the Aero movement. While this is a good project for the company. It actually didn't do much of anything different for the customer. Lipstick on a pig. On my team the Product Manager made everything about himself. Everything was about velocity, and how "everything must be done every sprint". He would disregard engineers thoughts and concerns and would put them down in front of the team frequently. While doing all this he would also not do anything that the engineers needed to be more efficient or even to do their job. So he would ask for everything of the team but would do almost nothing for them in return. 2020 was a big push for diversity hiring. I do 100% support this in every way, and EVERY high performing team I have been on has been with diverse members on that team. What I don't care for is how Relativity goes about recruiting diversity hires. It borders on discrimination. It will never be said out loud, or in a hard rule. But it is expected of those hiring to specifically only hire diversity candidates. It is also a very shallow reasoning. It is just to pump up their numbers of diversity hires to boast on social media. I finally got fed up enough after the RCA, watching several people get fired, seeing the fear in all the engineers on a day to day basis, and a product manager who couldn't care less about the team. They have absolutely terrible culture on that team, and the company as a whole tries to put on this big fake company culture. Everyone can see through it.

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Relativity Response
5y
Thank you for sharing your feedback around your experience at Relativity. While your feedback does not describe the culture we aim to create, I appreciate your thoughts and perspective. I would like to shed some light around our Relativity Certified Administrator (RCA) exam and our commitment to more diverse and inclusive hiring practices. The RCA exam is meant to educate our employees that work on or with the product so they can capture a full understanding of the platform at the start of their roles. We do have a high pass rating for the exam and, of course, continuously strive to make the pass rate 100% - all employees that are required to take the exam have more than one opportunity to pass it. We also frequently adjust the programming for new hires in more technical roles, which we hope will provide them a better experience. In addition, we highly encourage employees to share any study resources they feel are the most helpful to improve the overall experience. I’ll certainly pass along your feedback around the exam preparations to our certification team that works to continually improve the experience for those who take the exam. Regarding your concerns around our hiring and recruiting strategies, we are committed to hiring the best qualified candidates for each role and do not discriminate against any candidates that apply to or interview at Relativity. Our organization is committed to fostering a more inclusive and diverse environment because more diverse teams help businesses succeed. We are putting more intention in creating diverse, balanced candidate slates so that when we do hire the individual who is most qualified for the role, we can be more confident in having a balanced process. Each candidate, no matter the role, is evaluated based on their skills and experience, not whether or not we think they are “diverse” or check a box on a checklist. We also consider diversity of perspective and experience, among other aspects, when hiring across all departments. Relativity recognizes the importance of building teams that are not only physically diverse, but those that have diverse thinking and can draw on their different life experiences to set up our teams for success. Thank you again for your feedback. – Beth Clutterbuck, CHRO
5.0
Aug 17, 2020

Great to work at

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great work/life balance - Good pay for Chicago

Cons

- Not the most up-to-date technology

4.0
Oct 30, 2019

Great company, great people

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Terrific benefits and work-life balance. Encouragement to grow. Company is growing rapidly with good leadership. Expectations for my role are clearly defined.

Cons

Not much, some minor growing pains as the company expands

Viewing 34 - 36 of 48 Reviews

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