ANSYS is relatively a good company to work for, however, the company grew far too quickly for its own good. Many, many, many policies and procedures are archaic relics of a bygone era. In the past 10 years, the company has basically only grown via acquisition of other companies, with no real internal development. The licensing structure is at least a decade out of date. Most of the time, the answer to the customer is "no" or "you can't do that unless you pay X amount more".
Every department except for Sales and R&D is understaffed.
Personal Projects. A large part of your workload (and 35% of your yearly review) revolves around projects that are generally only vaguely related to the actual function of the department. Most of these are pure busy work, while others involve trying to develop procedures for people in other departments. Your supervisor will receive most of the credit for a successful project. If another department does not want to go along with a project (i.e. the IT department can't spend man hours or money on a Bus Ops idea) you will be held responsible for that. The most infamous ongoing project is the "Team Competition" where you compete against other colleagues via quizzes on procedures, crossword puzzles, and 6th grade science/art projects. One of these worthwhile activities was to make a macaroni portrait of the director of Bus Ops,... you can't make this stuff up.
Bus Ops is ran as the personal fiefdom of the Director, who absolutely does not care about anything other than his (very large) ego, and discussing sports. (Pro tip, if for some reason you want to work there, make sure you know everything about baseball), Several years before my time at ANSYS was over, he actually forbade any discussion of "office morale". One of his catch phrases was "you can always find a different job." Despite this, you will be expected to drink the Kool Aid and show unwavering enthusiasm for the Company, the Customer, and, especially, your Personal Projects.
Nepotism is rampant in the the hiring and promotion of the staff. The "supervisors" busy themselves seeking the director's favor and working on personal projects (there's that phrase, again) instead of actually leading their teams. In order to have time to complete these projects, the actual supervisor duties have been delegated to Senior CRCs (who, with few exceptions, are personal friends or a spouse of a supervisor). If you know any of them, by all means, you should submit a resume.
Pay raises and bonuses are insultingly low, barely above inflation. When it is time for your yearly review, you will almost certainly rate a consistent 2 to 3, on a 5 -point scale. for every criterion of the review. It is an open secret in the company that the director has instructed his underlings to not rate anyone a 3.5 or above, unless your project catches the praise of upper management. Your supervisor, who likely did nothing but listen to you report on the work you did on the project, will receive a higher score than you for your work. No other department rates their staff in this manner.
Every trivial piece of information is treated as Top Secret, and secrets are traded almost as a commodity amongst the entire department. A culture of backstabbing also exists. My advice is to keep your ears open and your mouth closed.
