Pros
- BTL/Surpass are willing to take a chance on people without previous experience in technology - for better or worse. If you're just getting started in your career, the company can be a useful (if very flawed) stepping stone. - If you don't want to move to Leeds, Manchester, or London, BTL/Surpass are one of the only medium / large tech companies in the Bradford area. This is often the reason why some staff stay for a long time. - The company is willing to let you change roles and disciplines. You can switch from design to sales, from development to documentation, or from account management to product ownership.
Cons
- The product is poor. There are good, talented people working on it, but the fundamental product that BTL sell is flawed. What should be a simple, functional assessment solution is a byzantine nightmare because of poor decisions and technology from a decade ago. These decisions and technologies still affect the product, making it difficult to work on, hard to sell, and embarrassing to speak to customers about. - The quality of the product means that staff in customer-facing roles suffer. You know the product is bad and customers they know the product is bad, but you're both still there because switching to another product is prohibitively expensive and complex. - The poor product also leads to chaotic development. Releases are constantly pushed, good ideas are discarded for paid-for features for individual customers, and any attempts at modernisation are hindered by the ancient bones that the entire product hangs on. - Pay is poor for user-centred roles. Anyone in these roles could be paid significantly better by changing company. BTL often chalk this up to being based in Bradford, but the pay gap is too wide for this to be the sole reason.