The best company I've worked at - Senior Software Engineer Appear Networks Employee Review

Let's start with the positives because with everything bad there is something good. Past and present, Appear has (had) a relative wealth of technical and sales technical talent. Many have jumped ship, but some people who would be immensely successful under better management still remain with the company. Exactly why they still stick around is hard to understand. Especially in light of the following (see Cons below).

Just recently, Appear came out with a press release boasting about being featured on a Swedish startup website. The claim highlights how poorly the company is really doing: After nearly 15 years of business, Appear still views itself a startup. And with so much talent, the management team holds sole blame. The company management team lacks any training for their respective positions and so "gut feeling" and personal biases rule in place of competence, practical skills and know-how. Thus at Appear, company objectives and goals have changed with every quarter, leaving both employees, customer and market, in a state of confusion. In the end and even though it’s in the eleventh hour, there is still potential at Appear. Replacing the Management, Marketing and parts of the Sales team and injecting substantial capital into the business could make the company blossom and grow beyond a permanent infancy stage. Perhaps the most sober strategy however, would be to offer Appear's shell chocked developers, sales, and sales technical staff, a new beginning somewhere else...

Appear is a very dynamic company in keeping with its startup culture - despite having been around for quite some time, the company alwas felt very fast-moving and agile. Personally, I thrived in such an environment and for me Appear was one of the most rewarding companies of my career to work for. I still regularly keep in touch with my old colleagues, both those still employed and those who have gone elsewhere. There is an incredible level of energy, commitment and skill present at all levels of the company, from developers to upper mangement. This is evident in so much of the output, we always worked with a clear focus on results - not on process, not on petty office politics and not on finding someone to blame should things go wronbg. The team was deeply committed and we felt a strong support from upper management in everything we did. Reading a previous review here I can't help but feel that the writer must have a personal grudge against the management team. In my view, the points listed above are exactly why people choose to stick around rather than pursue other opportunities. In such a competitive job market however, many companies have issues retaining their staff.

Some people prefer to view development as any old job that you can do by routine, like a factory line worker or a supermarket clerk. Appear isn't for them. It was always a job that required me to be able to juggle multiple projects, balance conflicting requirements and find my own solutions to problems. If you prefer your work to be predictable, go elsewhere. Being a small company, upward mobility is limited. Developers looking to move up into more managerial positions may find themselves out of luck. There is excellent room for technical specialization, however.