Ignore the naysayers! - werkgeversreview Manager bij ClearCourse

- All pros were before the company was bought

A frustrating environment for engineers, with weak leadership, unstable direction, and a culture that prioritizes short-term cost savings over product quality. The company’s repeated shifts in strategy, reliance on offshore development, and aggressive push toward AI have created a stressful and inconsistent workplace. - Below-market compensation for software engineers. - Heavy reliance on offshore development has often resulted in poor-quality output. - Management direction changes frequently, making it difficult to build toward a stable long-term plan. - There is a strong push to adopt AI, but leadership appears focused on cost reduction rather than understanding the actual risks and limitations. - The AI message shifted from encouragement to expectation, and now is mandatory. - Internal management decisions seem to be driving strong engineers to leave voluntarily, loosing our best talent and knowledge. - There is little visible recognition for quality work. - Constant redundancies make the environment feel insecure and unpredictable. This has been one of the most frustrating engineering environments I’ve worked in. Pay is below market, direction changes frequently, and management decisions often seem disconnected from engineering reality. Heavy reliance on offshore development has contributed to inconsistent quality, while the push to use AI feels driven more by cost-cutting than by a clear understanding of its limitations. What started as “let’s use AI” quickly turned into “use AI or you’re out,” which has created a negative culture rather than a supportive one. Good engineers are leaving, there is little recognition for strong performance, and repeated redundancies make it hard to feel secure in the role. Overall, the company feels unstable, poorly led, and increasingly difficult to trust as a place to build a career. Another review said it perfectly: "Sweatshop environment for SWEs, where you will be worked to the bone and micro-managed by people of low talent who know virtually nothing about engineering"

There are some genuinely talented and dedicated colleagues across the business who care deeply about customers and support one another. I learned a great deal during my 10+ years with EKM and had opportunities to develop my skills, lead a fantastic team and build strong relationships with customers.

In my experience, the culture changed significantly over time following acquisitions and organisational restructuring - following the buyout to ClearCourse. Communication became increasingly top-down, with frequent changes to priorities, targets and commission structures. Employee wellbeing often felt secondary to commercial objectives. During periods of organisational change, I found consultation and communication lacking, and decisions sometimes appeared to have been made before employee feedback had been fully considered. Returning from a period of ill health was particularly challenging, as I did not feel adequately supported despite occupational health recommendations. Recognition for teams delivering excellent customer outcomes felt inconsistent, while pressure and uncertainty continued to increase. Long-serving employees may find that loyalty is not always reflected in how they are treated during periods of change. Pay and rewards were not adequate, given the specific skillsets required. Teams were promised benchmarking to bring pay in line but it never materialised and they were made redundant. It felt wrong that employees in Expert roles were still on minimum wage with 5yrs + service!!