WillowTree Software Test Engineer reviews

Good pay for entry level Great people (at least at my office) client based, so the project can be either super relaxed or stupid annoying

What's the saying..? "You Either Die a Hero or Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain." I'd like to preface this with that I worked at the company before it was bought up by Telus, but factor into my rating the things I hear from former colleagues still at the company. This also takes into account the things I see online (a directionless movement towards AI, layoffs of friends who were long time veterans there, V O I C E, etc). In other words, my rating is a reflection of how I see WillowTree now (1 stars) versus how I saw them when I worked there (5 stars); it's changed for the worst. With that in mind, I hope my amazing experience at WillowTree provides insight to people on what they're missing from the "Old" Willowtree" of pre-Telus. Believe it or not, WillowTree was one the best places to be back before it was bought by Telus. I was extremely proud to tell people I worked there, and loved showing off the clients we collaborated with. In fact, it was rated as one the best places to be at by Glass Door with a 4.9 rating multiple years in a row. As of writing this review, the rating currently stands at an abysmal 2.8. It was a company I was proud of and one that stood strong with it's core values. You could just feel the energy and drive from everyone around you. There was this sense of "we're all in this together and will help each other wherever we can." WillowTree really imbued the spirit of companionship into the company even when it got pretty big (around 1K employees when I left). What's more is that the projects and tech stacks we worked on were some of the most interesting. The company pushed for employees to learn learn learn! It embedded the idea that you didn't just have to stick to one field, but could move to others if you put work into it. This was done through shadowing other colleagues, online learning opportunities, and a sense of self innovation promoted by the company. And oh my gosh, don't get me started on job security. In my years there, I never saw anyone fired and never knew of any layoffs in the company's history up until I left. This mentality especially tested WillowTree when the Pandemic hit. The company didn't layoff a single person! WillowTree opted for a temporary wage reduction strategy to prevent any firings, and it worked extremely well. The benefits and "swag" given to employees were top tier as well. Unlimited PTO, flexible work, great health insurance, etc. And heck, one of my most cherished swag items from WillowTree were an amazing Christmas Blanket and a +$100 rain jacket they gave out to the company employees on a whim. Teams even got a budget to make their own swag based on the projects they worked on. And the thing was... The company was doing great before the buyout by Telus... We were up consistently year after year in revenue, and took on bigger and bigger clients... And at the center of it all, our CEO Tobias Dengel, was one heck of a guy who stood up for his employees and was straight forwards about things no matter how tough some subjects were. He could always crack a laugh at All Hands and felt like a friend rather than a high and mighty, untouchable, scary CEO. From all that I hear about him now though... The layoffs (which he said weren't happening at first), the directionless movement to AI, a crumbling of core values, a lack of job security, and more... It's like I'm hearing about someone completely different leading the company. I truly hope WillowTree can turn back the clock to a time where it was really cool being a little tree in a big company forest.