Guidance Software Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Guidance Software full-time for more than a year

Pros – Smart developer and friendly enviroment.
Good benifits
Good team building events

Cons – Lack to overall team sprit between departments, too many people like to wash their hands of the problem when it comes to work inter-deparement
Not much freedom to innovate
CTO is very smart but does not understand UI

Advice to Senior Management – Learn how to manage people
Figure out why you have such a high turnover in key positions
Hire UX people

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidance Software

Pros – Good location and some very

Cons – Overall culture, lack of communication and respect, severe disapproval of work/life balance

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Guidance Software

Pros – Good location that is easy to access.

Cons – Interviewed and hired for one job, but was told to do another. Hired as a consultant, but expected to stay at location whether there was work or not. There tended to be groups of friends that advance each other. Clients were taken from people to lure new employees, which effected current employees base salary.

Advice to Senior Management – Company is not run professionally. It is time to seriously address this issue.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Guidance Software

Pros – The people! You spend a lot of time with your colleagues and this company has quite a few great and talented professional people.

Cons – Mgmt is not really honest and trustworthy. You will spend a fair amount of time covering your rear so that your immediate manager doesn't throw you under the bus because they don't understand how a process works (although you've explained it time and time again). And, they will not apologize for being wrong. Owning up to your mistakes is a vital quality trait that is lacking at Guidance.

Advice to Senior Management – The company is too top heavy. How many VP's of sales does one need? That money should be put to better use for the indians who are truly behind Guidance's success.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Guidance Software

Pros – -Great products
-Leader in the industry
-Friendly co-workers

Cons – -Inefficient organizational structure; management makes up positions for their friends
-management has poor communication skills
-The executive management are all technical and sales guys; they do a good job in bring in sales and innovating new products; however, they are not businessmen and don't know how to run a company.

Advice to Senior Management – -Stop hiring friends and start hiring competent people externally
-Hire a COO to take care of operations of the organization
-Cut spending

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Guidance Software

Pros – Very smart people. Interesting projects, if you're into forensics. Nice location.

Cons – Deep hierarchy. No career plan. Extremely hard to get promotions. Politics everywhere. You are valued by "how serious and boring" you are, not by your capabilities. People are fired all the time, no one is safe, normally because the person disagreed with her boss. So you'd better agree with your boss and do as it was said. Benefit package is low grade.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop piling managers on top of managers. Stop firing people for disagreeing with their bosses. Provide better benefits.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Guidance Software

Pros – It's nice working the for front-runner in forensic technology. But that's about it.

Cons – They seem to promote not based on supervisory ability, but, on some undefinable quality. If you think the CEO runs the show you're sadly mistaken. Whilst he may be at the top its the CTO's house and his rules. Cross them at your peril. He's still thinking its a small company that he's got to manage every detail of. Trust of subordinates actually doing the right thing is in short supply. Moral sucks and is falling like a stone. All the people that care are being herded out. And don't expect your supervisor to give you a pat on the back. It's more stick than carrot.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire good people and trust them to do the right thing. Promote based on leadership ability. There had to be leaders around at some time but they're gone now.
Being the leader in your field seems to translate to the executive staff into an utter lack of concern for both their employees and their customers. Stop trying to be something you're not, you're a forensics company. Ford doesn't make TV's and Microsoft doesn't make cars. They know what they're good at and stick to it. Professional conferences have hundreds of your customers and many of them are disheartened by your lack of response to their needs.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend