As other reviews allude to, and as a cursory glance at LinkedIn will confirm, BlueOptima struggles with a high staff churn rate. This is particularly apparent with staff that have been in the company for more than a year.
Some of the issues that contribute to this are:
- Terrible work life balance/burnout: It's not uncommon to see people in all departments working 12hr+ days and weekends, leading to burnout and a sense of unsustainability. A lot of this stems from the workload.
- Workload: for sales, targets that were very hard to hit without working exceptionally long hours, and with goals that would be expanded weekly, which meant that more time/effort would consistently be expected.
Additional responsibilities beyond sales would often be loaded on to the sales team without much regard (or possibly a deliberate disregard) for how this would impact the workload. Furthermore, once you had your first few clients, you then had to juggle new sales with managing the existing ones, including for example tech support that really should have its own dedicated resource.
The importance of 'time management' was often preached, but really it was time investment that was required.
- Product development: the product is interesting, no doubt. But as what is essentially a tool for management to monitor the productivity of software development teams (and individuals) it was a tough sell outside of organisations where this style of management already appeals. The technology is genuinely great, but the development of the product always seemed directed from the senior management's vision, with not enough input from customers.
There was never really a concerted effort to understand the wider market and other potential users in order to maximise its appeal. It did feel like we were selling a vision for a style of management sometimes, rather than solving a problem for potential customers.
- Management: just as with the product, transparency and scrutiny were their key values. In some ways, this was positive - as previously mentioned, senior management was generally quite open, and open to feedback. On the other hand, it meant a proliferation of spreadsheets, tracking, and for sales, a 'no excuses' attitude - even if salespeople had been reporting issues in their area for some time.
Feedback, while welcome, would not be received in an open environment - but rather heavily scrutinised, challenged, such that you had to be very careful and plan exactly what you were going to offer, with data/examples to argue the case.
A big issue however, and one that has directly led to several long-serving staff members leaving, is a certain key member of senior management. He seems to struggle controlling his emotions, and meetings would often include angry outbursts that could be heard across the office. Lacking in patience, not interested in 'excuses' (explanations), and those challenging his perspective would need to tread carefully.
- Compensation: while it's not terrible, neither is it great. For sales, hitting the advertised highs takes much longer than anticipated and is often impractical. As time goes on it becomes harder to justify staying when higher pay is immediately available elsewhere without the above stated issues. Very few had stock options, and as I understand they were not generous.
Overall, I would still recommend the experience for new grads - just be prepared to jump as the 'cons' become more acute. An interesting company for sure, and one that has a lot of potential if it can overcome the present challenges.
