-Not an independent company. Know that you are not working for a small, local software company, but rather an asset of a large multinational called Mistras. Corporate very much calls the shots from many miles away.
-Whether this is a pro or a con is up to your own personal worldview, but working with NCS is working essentially hand-in-hand with the oil and gas industry. There's not much diversification beyond that.
- Used to be independent with a solid benefits package, now the benefits are rather skimpy and not competitive with other, more stable tech companies. This was a trend for years, but is especially true after the buyout; you are all but forced onto an HDHP and vacation is capped lower and with a higher tenure requirement.
-Not much company vision beyond keeping billable work alive for a handful of customers. After a while this definitely felt like "just a job" and not a career.
-The company maintains a very large portfolio of specialized products that have minimal internal technical documentation. You very much have to learn as you go; there is little formal training provided except for on a few products.
-Drab work environment. The area where the software team works is a large open room that for a very long time held unused furniture. Part of this is that the professional park the company is in is somewhat dated, but it's nothing a little paint (and concern) couldn't have fixed.
-The company is very closely tied, if not married to, technology it does not own (namely a GIS platform from a certain GIS megacompany). This is another degree of freedom lost as you are locked into this platform. Often you feel that you are working not on your own products but working around someone else's products.
-Upper management seemed to be constantly concerned with cutting costs, which did not instill much confidence in the future of the organization. This is to the point that we were using unsupported operating systems to DEVELOP SOFTWARE ON.
It should be noted that most companies are not doing well during COVID, and it's hard to hold things against a company during this time when you have to keep the lights on. However, Mistras was very quick to slash salaries and eliminate the 401k match for the entire US branch of the organization (read: you) shortly after the pandemic hit. This did not come with any solid word about when they would return. This was a tough pill to swallow for an in-the-trenches employee, especially when one considers that the purchase price of the company is documented in the public domain. None of that capital appeared to have been reinvested in the company, facilities or used to help avoid employee pay and benefit cuts. Where did that money go?
