Pros
IDS is the tale of two companies: A market leader that offers a stellar product currently unmatched by any competitors, one that is starting to make better decisions that will keep IDS on the upswing for some time to come, AND a company that doesn't know how to address an increasing morale issue, high-turnover, and an age gap that keeps knowledge in silos. I think they are starting to make better business decisions that should see them on the up-swing. They hired a new CTO and he is working on a better release model. He is also listening to the working managers and making decisions that will help going forward. The biggest pro is the people. For the most part, the people you work with are wonderful, smart, and make the place worthwhile. Because of the cons at IDS, it is easy for everyone to have the same mentality to work and the culture. You soon realize that a lot of you are in this together. The work is challenging. There is no training, so you are immediately placed in a sink or swim environment. If you can utilize others around you, try to work above the toxic environment, and meet (or even exceed) your expectations, then you will walk away with more experience in 3 years than you usually gain in 5. If you're a self-starter, then you can really manage your brand and your work. Managers don't seem to care much for your development, so it falls on you. If you're good at managing your work and time well, then people will recognize those skills. The EAC (events and activities committee or something) is a group that sets up fun happy hours and parties. Those events can help make the job really fun. Good benefits, especially now that there is (finally) a 401k match. Good working from home options.
Cons
Where to begin... Moving #11 first because I think it is important. 11) Last but not least, they are using outdated software and creating a lot of Technical Debt. This is a problem and will bite them in the butt soon! 1) there is no training at all, none. The company develops and supports a leasing software. So you might expect there to be both Leasing training (for those that don't have a leasing or financial background), training for your actual position, and then a training on the software itself. But there is no training. You have to learn all these things on your own, but then there is no one to help tell you if you're getting it or not. This is a HUGE problem for the company. It can explain the high-turnover (because people aren't set up for success to actually perform their job, so either their self-confidence falls or they don't know how to actually do their job), which leads to a toxic environment. Then more work falls on the people that stay or know what they are doing, so they become too bogged down to be able to teach anyone anything. Often times your workload will go up but your deadlines or expectations stay the same. So you constantly feel like you have a mountain of work to do. 2) There is a significant age gap in the company. You either have people that have been at IDS for 15-20 years or you have people that have been there for less than 5. So when there are company events, the attendance is abysmal. And this again creates a toxic environment and tension between the groups due to a bottleneck when it comes to sharing knowledge. The people that have been there for 15-20 years keep their knowledge to themselves as a way to remain indispensable, fearing they will be let go (just look at the BA team where you have really knowledgeable experts that don't want to help you out). So the newer people rarely get trained (see #1) because no one wants to share the information. This creates an interesting culture both socially and work-wise. 3) Management will do everything in their power to please the customers, even at the expense of the employees and company morale. Here's an example: IDS will tell clients that the last day to submit an issue to a patch is on 10/1/16 (just an example). Then on 10/9/16, a few days before the patch is supposed to go out, a client will complain about an issue or several issues and to please the client, IDS will re-open the patch and include those issues. Developers have to do more work on a patch they thought was ready to go out, Support has to work with the client on these issues and forgo working on pressing issues, and then everyone has to refocus their work on those issues. But then management won't communicate this decision to the rest of the company. This creates resentment across multiple teams for having to do more work on a patch everyone thought was closed. Note: I am not saying that it isn't good for management/company to please its clients, but to not communicate this across the impacted teams is not a good sign. 4) There is a general sense that no one cares about the actual employees. Things are not properly communicated. Or execs will say one thing in the all hands meeting, and then do another. Management and even the board knows about the morale problem at IDS, but they have not addressed it in years. This means that either management does not care about the morale problem, it isn't a high priority (so we continue to bleed talent), or they don't know how to address it. 5) It seems that most people are underpaid vs the industry standard. When I spoke to my boss about my salary not being competitive vs what I am seeing in the industry, their response was "of course we aren't competitive." It is a fact that we underpay employees. What is interesting, however, is that a few executives don't actually live in Minnesota. So IDS pays for them to fly in and out every week, and they pay for their hotel rooms every week. So think about that for a second. Think about being told by a boss that "we don't have the money for" X, but that we are paying for the CTO to fly in and out of Chicago or San Fran every week. And that we are paying for their hotel room. Needless to say, they're not staying in a Holiday Inn Express. 6) Executive team hires their friends and not the more qualified option. In my 3-4 years at the company, we hired a handful of new executives, all of which either worked with the CEO in the past or were friends with trhe CEO. And recently the COO position was given to an existing exec that was already stretched too thin, putting more pressure on already struggling teams. 7) HR doesn't seem to actually do anything besides benefits. There isn't even an employee satisfaction or engagement survey (we had 1 in my 3-4 years at the company and it was only when we asked for one that we got it). 8) No one cares about your personal development. They only care about what you can do for them, even if it isn't something that fits your job or your career. 9) Management plays favorites way too often. Going back to the age gap, another problem exists and it is that of tenure. There are a lot of poor managers that have been there for 15+ years that seem to get special treatment, even though they can't see the forest from the trees. They make bad decisions, or they are too affraid to stand up to their friends in higher positions and fight for what is right. 10) Some people are really unprofessional. Piggy-backing off #9, the people that have been at IDS the longest tend to become demanding, rude, and unprofessional. They think that they can get by being like that because they have been there the longest. They have this feeling of being "untouchable" which only breeds worse behavior. 11) Last but not least, they are using outdated software and creating a lot of Technical Debt. This is a problem and will bite them in the butt soon!