Still waiting on the SeaChange
Pros
I worked at the Ft. Washington facility since before SeaChange purchased the small consulting group formerly known as Digital Video Arts, Ltd. There were once a large number of "pros" ... decent culture, excellent compensation package, interesting work, regular technology change, and talented co-workers. Not much of this is left though. The only real "pros" left are talented + interesting co-workers and the compensation package. There are few companies that still offer six weeks of vacation in addition to 10 paid holidays and about a week of sick time. The other less obvious plus is that there is still some hope that the latest change in management will actually make the SeaChange happen. Even better than that, SeaChange is still in a market-leading position somehow. Until a strong competitor shows up on the scene, they will maintain this position. Hopefully the senior management will turn the company around before that happens.
Cons
Unfortunately, the list of "cons" is pretty lengthy these days. If you are unlucky enough to work outside of HQ in Acton, then you will be considered as second-class citizen of the company at best. I'm not going to dwell on this since a number of other reviewers mention precisely the same sentiment. SeaChange is currently mired in a technology tar pit. As soon as a technology is chosen, it becomes ingrained and impossible to change. This is casually blamed on the inability to upgrade their customers but is much more deeply seated than that. The engineering organization refuses to adopt any course of action that facilitates easing infrastructural changes. "New" products are usually running on end-of-lifed software stacks by the time that they reach GA. Another serious "con" is that SeaChange is a publicly traded company that is at the whim of "Wall Street". Most projects have a shelf life of one or two quarters. Engineering direction tends to change predictably at the "end of the quarter". They have also succumbed to the practice of both off-shoring and outsourcing engineering efforts. This might work if the different organizations inside of SeaChange were capable of communicating amongst themselves. SeaChange is also a company with a fairly small number of hugely influential clients - e.g., Comcast, Cox Communications, RCN, etc. Unfortunately, this makes SeaChange very much at the whim of its customers. The result is a reactively managed organization which turns on a dime whenever a PO is signed. This leads to projects that are abruptly shelved when customer funding is pulled. Projects are also resumed a year or so later when someone decides that they might actually be able to pay for the feature that they asked for. Various engineering groups within their customers work very closely with SeaChange's engineering groups and have for many years. This gives external engineering groups deep familiarity with the inner workings of the SeaChange system which creates very tightly integrated systems which are maintenance nightmares. This has been the way that systems are developed at SeaChange since the beginning and it does not show any signs of changing.
