The work was often grueling and stressful and the product management is really good at micro managing but really bad at estimates. They don't allow enough time for testing or really thinking through a project plan before telling a customer when it will be delivered. I can't tell you how many times there was a huge customer commit that either slipped by weeks or months or required the developers to work major overtime. No extra comp for that either just promises to do better next time but it was always the same thing over and over. Priorities would change all the time too but not usually because they were trying to match what a competitor was offering.
As for the alumni there weren't many who really seemed welcome back. Most of the turnover seemed to be company decisions and were conveyed as personality and team fit problems but I never had any issues with anyone and if I did we would talk and work it out. I think it was management that had issues with people and didn't like when an employee would disagree. There were some really smart people at that company that management just shoved out the door and then spoke really poorly about after. Its disheartening to see people poor their hearts into a company and then not really appreciated in the end. I remember a couple times where people would hilight a problem that could have really hurt the company and the first reaction from management was to just do what their told.
The company has been around for over a decade and seems to be getting smaller not bigger so maybe the market just isn't there or maybe the people in charge need to do things differently. With some of the customers they have it seems like the market is not the problem.
