Nop, not really - werkgeversreview Software Developer bij Critical TechWorks

2,0
4 dec 2019
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

- Informal atmosphere. - Very ambitious area. - Very friendly and helpful coworkers. - Nice company ideals and policies proclaimed. - Several people like Director of Happiness and Chief Technical Titans are rockstars and just the experience of working with them make it worthwhile spending here a year or so.

Minpunten

- Company is disorganised mess. - Not agile, workflow is fully defined by BMW (AG or Car IT), no one has the guts to try to address it to BMW. - Salary is a joke compared to contributions company expects you to do and don't even try to compare it to the salaries German colleagues have for the same job. - A lot of technology is outdated, BMW colleagues doesn't want to change them and there are no tools exist in the company to enforce migration to new tech. - Implementation of company ideals and policies has nothing to do with theory. In reality company is very hierarchical and nontransparent. Meanwhile management tries to shift all the responsibilities to employees, as theoretically company has flat structure. - Lots of people whose role and responsibilities are very unclear to others. Huge gap in workload between some colleagues at the same proficiency level. - Proficiency evaluation process is so worthless, unfair and humiliating. You will waste your time to collect feedback and examples of what you've done right, while all of this will be dismissed and will be never mentioned on your manager meeting. You are being delivered the fact that you have proficiency level X now (they can downgrade you), and no reasoning or examples of what you did wrong or what you didn't do are provided. Your arguments and examples are not accepted, decision is made by one person, there is no way to ask for independent reevaluation. - While they always say that you should contribute to company culture and help improve processes, this is imposible to achieve in reality due to lack of anonymous feedback at all, strong hierarchical structure and lack of transparency for employees. - Very blurry career opportunities, as there are no real criteria for evaluation of your work. Your career growth is defined by how your manager "feel". - Company tries hard to create nice image on social media and suggests employees to reference company, repost and participate in discussions on public resources. In the same time employees opinion about company is overlooked. - IT infrastructure is horrible, it is unreliable, there are too many mandatory communication channels. Offices are really overpopulated. - There are too many interns and juniors in company. They have to do complicated tasks often related to security and safety, while they don't really have relevant experience to do it. Few seniors are too overwhelmed with their work for the project to teach and train so many juniors and review their work properly.

avatar
Reactie van Critical TechWorks
3y
Thank you for your honest feedback. This is a tough review to read, but it is pertinent and gives us a chance to clear some issues. But in the time since it was written, several things have changed, namely: -We are continuously perfecting our culture, specifically our organizational culture. We can proudly say we are as flat and non-hierarchical as we can be. It comes with its own set of problems, but we acknowledge that all systems require constant improvement and work on it daily. -We have multiple channels of feedback to allow every individual to contribute. From town hall-like Breakfast Talks to regular anonymous Peakon surveys and the Speak Freely channel. Constant feedback is the environment that operates change at Critical Techworks. -Proficiency evaluation has been perfected and streamlined. Facilitators from all across the company (as independent as you wish them to be) can help you and direct you towards your goal. Yes, your proposal can be rejected (as with all evaluation systems, otherwise, what is the point?), but your choice of facilitator can help ensure you build the best possible argument for yourself. -Our Hybrid work model kicked in and alleviated our office capacity. We have since moved in to new offices in Porto and will soon inaugurate a new building for our Lisbon office. -Pay discrepancy between Portugal and Germany is unfortunately not something we can control. We try our best to be competitive within the industry, and we regard remuneration as a package that includes but is not limited to salary. -Our relationship with BMW has evolved. Indeed, pushing our Agile principles is not easy, but strides have been made. The quality of our work has been such that they have come to trust us over time and no longer push as forcibly toward their way of doing things. That said, the great challenge - and the great motivation - of working at Critical Techworks is to foster and care for a healthy working relationship with our partners in Munich. It’s not always easy, and it’s something that will never be complete - it’s always there to be improved upon. However, it is gratifying when a small company like ourselves can impose some new values (Agile, Flat Hierarchy, Autonomy) into a titanic company like BMW. I hope that you have witnessed some of these changes in the time since you have written this. If you are still with us, please feel free to voice your concerns (new or old) on our fortnightly surveys anonymously, and we will start a conversation from there. We all want to improve, always. If you have chosen to work elsewhere, let me thank you again and apologize for letting your review fall through the cracks. We wish you a bright future and all the success you deserve nonetheless.

Ontdek andere reviews over Critical TechWorks

5,0
11 jun 2022
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

This was a great company to work for

Minpunten

None, very fair and understanding

avatar
Reactie van Critical TechWorks
3y
Good afternoon. Thank you for your review. We are very pleased that you enjoyed working with us! Much success :)
3,0
3 okt 2024
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

Great Coworkers and flexible schedule

Minpunten

Can be tough to move up

2
avatar
Reactie van Critical TechWorks
1y
Thank you for highlighting the positive aspects of your experience, especially the flexibility and the great coworkers we have here. We understand that career progression is an important concern. We are continuously working on refining our growth paths to ensure everyone has clear opportunities for advancement, while also recognizing individual contributions. Your feedback is invaluable, and we’re committed to making improvements where needed.
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