When I was hired at evestment I was told that the culture was right up there with Google and some of the top developer companies in the United States. I was told that it was a fun casual environment. From my perspective this was not the case. Alternatively, if you want to work for an extremely conservative buckled down company, evestment is the place for you.
I will break down my review in sections...
Culture:
Conservative. Top down management approach. Management does not make it a point to get to know your name or you as a person. This makes you feel like a nameless drone. I've worked at other software companies that feel more like a family where even the CEO knows who you are. I prefer the latter. Conformity is key. If you’re the outlier then you’ll have problems.
Process:
Software is developed under the Agile veil but clearly not executed as such. You are told what they want and how they want it. If you are a creative person who enjoys solving problems in UX, algorithms and data, evestment is not for you. You are there to complete exactly the task they hand you and not to deviate from the script. The development process is clearly top down. To put it in industry terms, evestment is the polar opposite of groundbreaking companies like Valve.
Career & Skills:
I like to work in places that encourage you to advance your skills in your craft. After asking repeatedly if I could expense books, conferences or boot camps. I was told no. From my perspective, if you want to advance your skills you must do it on your own dime. I do this anyway but it’s always a nice gesture when the company you work for will provide the materials for you to make yourself a better engineer. They will however pay for certifications, but only after you pass. No hack-a-thons or outside social team building excursions. I feel these types of activities help build trust in your team as well as overall individual skills.
Other Comments:
Religion is injected into some meetings, which I found offensive and off-putting. From my short time at evestment it was very clear to me that their goal in the market is to buy a competitor, destroy it, lay off workers, raise their prices and become the monopoly in their niche`. For some this is acceptable and happens every day in the world. For me personally, I don’t want to work for a company like this, therefore I left.
