Descartes Systems Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Descartes Systems

Pros – The vacation package is 20 days after 4 years of employment, which is something unheard of. 7 sick days, 1 personal day, 7 holidays - extremly good. The company also have a great health insurance and 50% matching 401k. You might be able to work from home, at least some of the time, but that depends on your direct manager work philosophy.

Cons – Extremely low pay compare with the same position in the industry - somewhere in the lowest 5% of the normal curve. No respect for employees, no raises. They had the performance review last year, and salary review this year - long process, starting in mid-October. When there was finally a time for senior managment to actually come up with the numbers (middle of January) they not only ignored the schedule, they acted like there was not salary review and haven't even mentioned the issues in CEO webcast three month later.
The morale is extremly low since all the employees I know feel extremly disrespected. Six best developers already left, and the most of the rest is looking for a new job. Productivity is very poor, since there is no motivator - no raises, and a big demotivator - being treated like s..t by the senior managment.

Advice to Senior Management – You guys up there need to quit. There is total disconnect with you and the employess. If you want developers to work on McDonald salaries, open offices in China.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Descartes Systems

Pros – It's a job, which is good in this time of slow economic growth. There is a good bit of autonomy (which is also a negative, which I will outline under Cons). Benefits are good. Co-workers are nice and I made a few good, lasting relationships. Smart product people (developers, engineers, and product managers).

Cons – The company had 5+ Sales and Marketing complete re-orgs since 2000 from what I understood via very reliable sources. For proof of this, I randomly met a friend of a friend who had worked both at Descartes in a similar role and at another company I was with. He was at Descartes 3 years earlier and echoed the feeling of it being a chaotic environment.

Descartes is a "product" organization and doesn't really, truly, deeply believe in the value of sales and marketing. There's a reason their revenue had been stagnant over the course of several years. I saw numerous middle management changes in 2 years, and of course very senior management people are never going to take a look in the mirror and ask "What's the common denominator here?"

As for middle management, I would have out-of-town bosses visit and spend less than 10 minutes with me before jetting off. I once went 3 weeks without speaking to anyone on my team. The CEO, Art, wouldn't even acknowledge that I existed when in the same room as him (and I'm a social person and made a concerted effort to make contact). Then one time, a senior VP publicly acknowledged the efforts of every person who contributed to a major S&M event- except for me. I worked my butt off and my efforts were recognized by all the others on my team except for him. Admittedly, I was laid off weeks later as the next-to-last from my "class" on the Sales and Marketing ferris wheel, so that may have been his way of avoiding eye contact. Still, a little humanity and thankfulness for making him look good would have been nice and respectful.

Just a terrible fit for me with atrocious upper management who have obviously sucked up to the Board to the point of not having to produce results or treat sales and marketing with respect for their abilities. Despite the doom and gloom, it was good work experience, it paid the bills, and I enjoyed my co-workers, and it's good to end on a positive note.

Advice to Senior Management – See above.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend