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LookingGlass Cyber Solutions

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LookingGlass Cyber Solutions Reviews

3.6

64% would recommend to a friend

(87 total reviews)

Gilman Louie

72% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

LookingGlass Cyber Solutions has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 87 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The LookingGlass Cyber Solutions employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

87 reviews
1.0
13 Apr 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Coworkers are solid developers. Office environment is laid back and casual. Free snacks and drinks. Flexible work schedule, remote work allowed.

Cons

The CTO is an incompetent micro manager. He's obviously a first time CTO and in over his head. Engineering org was moved away from CTO and under CEO. As a result, the CTO has no idea what he should be working on. The org change works on paper, but he hasn't stopped his day to day interference. He verbally abuses anyone that disagrees with his uninformed ideas. When a PHD tells you that your "algorithm" isn't going to work, you should listen. When sysadmins tell you the hardware is crap, you should listen. You shouldn't listen to one "architect" that tells you everythying you want to hear. The CTO will bypass multiple layers of managers to task people with his own priorities. He obviously thinks he's the CEO, trying to make decisions about how sales and marketing works, while his own org repeatedly fails. It's telling when the CTO is doing QA on his own, and forcing developers to address the bugs he's found. If he's not injecting work on a daily basis, he's yelling at people for underperforming. He should trying yelling at a mirror. The organization he's built is a reflection of him...a complete failure. The best measure of a person is how they treat people that leave the company. The day before someone leaves, the CTO would say they are high performers and key to the organization. As soon as they quit, they are poor performers with bad attitudes that he would fire anyway. The reviews on Glassdoor make it clear that the CTO makes working at Lookingglass a soul crushing experience. Current product has been two years in the making, with massive failures at every step. The only thing that hasn't changed is the managers. How does the CTO fail for two years and not get fired? The CEO must be protecting him, that can't happen forever. Investors can only be fooled for so long and vaporware doesn't pay the bills. Fake demos and marketing don't fool customers. Turnover on the team is measured weekly. (Did anyone quit this week?) As for 5 star reviews with high praise, they are obviously bogus. Morale is rock bottom and anyone that thinks otherwise is being fooled. Potential for greatness exists, but not with current CTO and Engineering managers. Employees across the company still have hope that CTO will leave and environment will improve, but they are all actively looking for new opportunities. If you're interviewing, here are some questions to ask: Why is the CTO still in place after 20+ developers have left, most citing him specifically as the reason. That many people can't be bad employees. Why is the CTO still in place after 2 years of failures? How many second chances can a person get? Why is every deadline treated like a Death March? Why is how the product looks more important than the backend? Without a solid backend, nothing works. Focusing on the GUI to mask architecture flaws creates mountains of technical debt that will never be addressed. Why are developers told "this time it will be different", and then when its crunch time, it's "we need 110% to make this deadline"? Why does the CTO dictate what software to use and how to implement features, opposite of what developers know is right? Why is fake data used to demonstrate features with the express purpose of deceiving customers? Are architecture decisions made by a single person or is the experience of the entire team taken into account? When those decisions are questioned, is there a civil discussion or does it turn into a tantrum? When a large architecture change is made, is it planned extensively or is it done in the same sprint with little regard to the impact on every other part of the system? Does product management dictate system specs, even when the developers know the hardware can't support the feature requirements? How many people have left the team in the last 6 months? How many women are in the organization? Is the CTO disrespectful to women?Show Less

3.0
12 May 2015

let down, burned out; good potential but needs work

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are really great teams of people doing amazing things for the company. Threat research is an awesome team and is contributing some really cool stuff to Lookgingglass and industry. Sales is high energy and passionate about what they're selling. The CEO Chris Coleman is a great guy and I think he's the perfect person to lead the company. On the engineering side there are some really bright and amazing folks trying to do great work. Lots of free snacks, happy hour events, and sporadic grilling on the deck. Flexible work hours/schedule with good PTO/sick policy. Huge opportunities to learn and grow as long as you can also perform as well.

Cons

Apart from the previous reviews which obviously came from management? Engineering is in a bad state. The talent and culture are mismanaged. I think the leaders mean well, but instead of fostering a great culture that will grow they've instead created an environment that burns you out and leaves you feeling like you didn't accomplish anything. A good summarization for how the engineering team works is crisis led development. Rather than actually figuring out what can and should be accomplished, tasks are thrown at folks piecemeal; it'd be nice if we had leaders that stuck to the agile process. Another problem is people that are not cultural fits are hired and/or kept around. There have been instances of engineers that are problematic and nothing was done to remedy the situation. Again it points to the desperation to keep people regardless of how much harm they cause. Hopefully with the recent addition of a VP of engineering there will be changes that make this review irrelevant (hopefully).

2.0
27 Jan 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

As the company is small, with around 35 people, everyone knows and gets along with each other. Employees generally enjoy working with and respect each other. During the warmer months in Baltimore, we'll do daily lunches on the rooftop deck, grilling up burgers, chicken, or whatever else you like. The area - Canton - is also very nice. You can talk a walk along the Harbor, head up to Canton Square, or walk a mile to Fell's Point. There is an 'open vacation' policy. More on that in the Cons section. Hours are flexible, and remote work is available. Some people work from home two or three times a week, and you are free to schedule appointments during the day, so long as you make up the hours at other times.

Cons

Scrum - Supposed to be practicing it, but in reality, are not. The closest thing Lookingglass gets to Scrum is a Kanban board. Work is generally assigned and created from Management, with little or no input from employees. 'Sprint planning' involves being told what you'll work on that sprint, as opposed to committing to what you can accomplish. The 'open vacation' policy is ripe for abuse. Because of the poor project planning and work assignment (see Scrum above), we're constantly behind. As we are behind, there is no time for vacation, so while the company policy is 'open vacation', vacation is out-right denied ("We can't afford for anyone to take vacation this quarter"). Some of management is abusive. "I don't have time for this BS" and "Stop talking to $person, you're only creating problems" are not uncommon. Management micromanages - They expect you to account for every hour of your day, generally asking for multiple status. In addition, instead of using you for what you were hired for, they tell you how to do your job. Most importantly, there is no trust. It has been communicated that there is only one employee whom management "trusts to get anything done".

Viewing 1 - 3 of 87 Reviews

Glassdoor has 90 LookingGlass Cyber Solutions reviews submitted anonymously by LookingGlass Cyber Solutions employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if LookingGlass Cyber Solutions is right for you.