Pros
Logicworks provided excellent exposure to new technologies, offered access to a unique and diverse customer base and appeared to have a solid business model. This was a great opportunity to see IT infrastructure implemented at a scale most engineers would never encounter. During my tenure, I was proud to have an impact on highly-visible systems and felt a sense of accomplishment knowing that Logicworks was a trusted business partner to important clients. My coworkers were some of the most loyal and hardworking people I'd ever seen in an organization. This was true to a fault, in that most employees were not aware of their (tremendous) value on the open market. But *every* employee in my group went above and beyond in their efforts to support the company and customer base. Most staff had been with the firm for a long time and grew up within the organization. Leadership in the C-suite was inspirational and the clear selling point for me the join the firm. The marketing and sales teams worked miracles, despite having constrained engineering resources to execute them. Day-to-day and in-office culture was friendly; almost family-like. The staff generally worked well together, with some notable exceptions. There was minimal political maneuvering within the general employee ranks.
Cons
The issues with Logicworks stem from an abundance of tribal knowledge and poor management and employee-development practices. Having such talented engineers and support staff breaks down when those staff are not following industry best-practices. There was an uncanny resistance to exploring larger industry trends and processes; with management opting to do things the way they've "always been done". I sensed tremendous mistrust of newer employees hired from the outside. Culture starts at the top, and this reluctance at the management layer impacted the client base, hurt system stability and consequently, the firm's reputation. I'd liken the rate of change and adoption of ideas to that of a large corporation; unreasonably conservative for a firm this small. The hardest-working people were stretched thin and often burnt-out. Some of this was a matter of working hard, but not "working smart". Working smarter was feasible, but was hampered by a collective myopic view of information technology. There's a fair amount of "knowledge hoarding", with key information often residing with a single engineer who was always in the critical path of projects. Management was hands-off here and did little to address knowledge and communication barriers. Despite these faults, the sales and the client management teams picked up the pieces. The customers were surprisingly accepting of this. My HR and management interactions were stressful and fraught with disappointment. From initial onboarding, to compensation, to handling expenses/taxes/benefits, reviews, company policy and even separation, the level of professionalism was far below what I've experienced in other positions. The management encounters were just plain contentious.
