D'Vinci Interactive Reviews

d'Vinci tries very hard to maintain the cool, casual, we're-all-one-big-family company image. Their office has the stereotypical "cool startup" atmosphere: bright red couches in the lobby next to an old Macintosh Plus computer, IKEA desks in an open floor plan, a Macbook Pro at every desk, and an overall "really busy, but it's okay" feel. On the outside, this looks like a great place to work. Internally, however, d'Vinci Interactive is an unadulterated disaster. Management Upper management at d'Vinci are largely inexperienced and often bullheaded, despite their many years at the company -- an obvious case of promotion by seniority. This inexperience leads to weak, knee-jerk leadership and a lack of thoughtful decisive action, which ultimately results in chaos and disorganization throughout all aspects of the company. Consistently poor business decisions have made the workplace reek of inefficiency. Constant, arbitrary, directionless meetings are a daily occurrence, and interruptions are endless. The company also suffers from a bad case of "too many cooks" syndrome, caused by the 1:1 ratio of managers to non-managers. At d'Vinci's scale, this is massively detrimental, and often causes team members to be spread extremely thin while others have nothing to do. Projects & Work Poor leadership means that a well-managed project is rare at d'Vinci -- at least from the employee perspective. Everyone works hard to make sure that the work gets done, but the total lack of process makes it arduous and painful to produce anything of quality. Clients are generally happy with the result, but often at the cost of employee wellbeing and a mountain of organizational and technical debt that goes into default as soon as the project needs to change. Employee burnout, especially on the development team, is glaringly obvious and entirely ignored. Instead of enacting real change and adjusting the way that the company handles projects, management simply throws more bodies at the problem (not realizing that this increases overhead for everyone else) and continues to pile on new work. People are often expected to work on mission-critical projects alone with little or no direction, minimal specification, and near-zero interaction with the customer. If someone falls behind or gets stuck, there's nowhere to go for help. Late projects are generally adjusted and discussed amicably in meetings with other employees. However, managers have been known to throw people under the bus behind closed doors. Communication & Feedback Every year, the company solicits feedback from the employees anonymously, reads it aloud in a meeting, and follows up by doing the absolute bare minimum to pander to the most common, longest-running complaints. Continued concerns are first hand-waved, eventually ignored, and finally discouraged. Criticisms of any kind are the fastest way to get on management's bad side. Office Culture & Politics The close-knit family image is first and foremost a facade used to attract talent. When things get tough, expect nothing in the way of understanding or flexibility from management. Client work comes first, without exception. If you're unhappy, overwhelmed, or burned out from the unrelenting disorder and poor leadership, expect the axe. You are a resource, not a person, and d'Vinci is as corporate and cold as any other company. Don't get the wrong idea, though. Most of the people that I had the pleasure of working with were wonderful, interesting, fun-loving individuals. Unfortunately, the underhanded management style and the influx of big corporate values has smothered the passion and creativity that previously drove d'Vinci to success, leaving only a haze of bitterness and contempt in the workplace. Pay & Benefits Employees at d'Vinci are woefully underpaid. Even critical members of their team are being paid far below the median salary for their position, and the deceptive work environment makes it difficult or impossible to ask for a raise without consequence. Yearly performance-based raises are given, though they barely exceed the rate of inflation, even for top-performers. The benefits package is so-so. The health insurance is average, the 401k is decent, but certainly not the best. Overall If you're looking for a company at which to learn and grow, d'Vinci is not it. Spend your time looking for a company where your voice will be heard and your concerns addressed. Find a place where the employees are respected and paid well, where leadership is strong and decisive, and where promotions are based on merit, not stamina.