Chaotic, weak technical leadership. Good benefits.
Pros
Pay, benefits, location, engineers. Some great engineers.
Cons
I found the place unfriendly and disorganized. Software project directions would change on a whim. There was tremendous churn when I was there. Layoffs, resignations, people being forced out. The entire technical leadership left within a short period after I started. How much of this is the Bain Capital influence is unclear. But there was a culture of fear, lack of trust, and morale was always weak. Then more people would quit. Then more layoffs. The open office work environment was pretty extreme. I guess some people can work with non-stop chatter and traffic, but I'm not one of them. It's like someone said "Hey, let's make the most difficult environment possible for concentrating and writing code"... and then made this place. I dislike open office ideology in general, but this place was especially egregious. At one point, working from home was possible, but that largely stopped. They sold me by describing a job that never materialized. Everything I said I wanted *not* to do is what I ended up doing. Their recruitment will tell you what you want to hear. Be more skeptical than usual. This is probably related to the management churn: What notions may have been there initially can change in an instant. There is no governing vision at Viewpoint - it's always flying by the seat. Things can change drastically in a matter of days and did for me. They will sell you a panacea, as companies do, but be careful. Especially if changing from a good job. The technical leadership was almost nonexistent. Maybe this is because most of them left before and after I started. Once they settled on a new hierarchy, I found the top leaders unfriendly and bullish. Naturally, other problems abounded: multiple teams doing the same thing in different ways, teams not sharing code, teams not talking to each other. I can't say much about the corporate C-level leadership across the street. Manolis seemed alright. Work life balance probably depends on your team. The company itself certainly doesn't encourage any balance. Work 12-14 hours a day, every day? They'll give you an award. There are good people here. I worked with super smart engineers. The place works for enough people to keep things moving and profitable. But I never liked it.
