Adknowledge Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area

Pros

Adknowledge is easily the most interesting company I've ever worked for. There are lots of constantly moving targets and the competitive nature of the industry means there is always something exciting to do. For engineers looking for that one work experience that will add enormous value to their resume, this is it. There's always an opportunity for star performers to show themselves and grow and you'll have solid numbers to back up your efforts.

The company tends to have very engaged and smart team leads and managers. Everyone generally respects their immediate supervisor.

There is very little bureaucracy; there's a phenomenal get-things-done attitude in every area of the company. Great benefits. If you're an engineer you will find yourself surrounded by super smart people that truly love what they do.

There have been increased opportunities to work remotely which is extremely welcomed on those days where the streets are solid ice.

Cons

The company now suddenly realizes that issues of culture and career advancement must be addressed. This was great but the execution was extremely botched. In these sorts of critical junctures where a difference really could be made the CEO gives lip service to these ideas, delegates them to other people, then doesn't want to hear about them ever again.

It's exceptionally hard to find qualified technical candidates for the Kansas City office and this creates perpetual understaffing.

The culture here is such that employees suspect ulterior motives for each move the company makes. This is more often than not completely justified.

People tend to burn out in dramatic ways due to the nature of the business. There's an opportunity to repurpose those employees and help them heal, but Adknowledge just doesn't have time or the interest in pursuing this. Once you're no longer producing value you're gone and this aspect is frightening for many.

Pros

attractive office; free coffee and soda; young, smart staff

Cons

Superficial stuff is great, but the real building blocks of a great company are missing. Management talks a good game, but it's insincere. The only thing the CEO really cares about is "what have you done lately to make me money?" So you worked all night, so you gave up your time with your family, so you missed your kids school program, birthday, game, whatever, well, that's your job. Don''t expect thanks, appreciation or recognition. And if you hit a tough spot or technology changes, don't be surprised to be shown the door. There's a show of communication, but that's all it is - a show. No one trusts that anything that's said is real or genuine--and there's good reason for that. There's no real stability anywhere, but less here. Many companies have a lack of trust between management and employees, but here it's pervasive to a point that is sad and destructive. This is a new technology company that feels like an old industrial company where employees are just interchangeable cogs in the wheel.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue. Some integrity wouldn't hurt either.

Pros

Nice office space; young, fun environment; decent pay; free soda and beer, catered lunches couple times a week.

Cons

Bad hours; some managers have no idea what they're doing, if you get stuck with a bad manager you're going to hate walking into work everyday; poor yearly review process, you're lucky if you even get one; raises are unheard of.

Advice to Senior Management

Act like you care about your employees and treat them well to avoid such high turnover

Pros

Great People, Great Benefits, Lots of FUN, Lots of Work. Challenging Projects, Great company for starters

Cons

Low Salary, Low Career Growth Prospects, Communication between management and employees needs to be improved.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase Salary of employees, Treat Developers/Engineers with a little more respect, We love your company as much as you do. So give us the respect we deserve.

Pros

Company is growing really fast. The management is smart, understand the business well and takes good decisions in the best interest of the company and its employees. There are good opportunities to learn the business and growth with this organization. There is very little politics and focus is on results.

Cons

Company is led by a young and aggressive CEO who at times likes to see things in a certain way.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Show the employees that management is actively listening to employees.

2. Create a program where employees are encouraged to apply for open positions with-in the organization after they have completed 18-24 months at any role. This will allow Acknowledge to create synergies among the teams and the employees can learn more about different groups and would stay longer with the company.

Pros

Great environment to work in. Has some technical challenges as they mature, but overall very good. Great opportunities to learn new things, and advance your skills. Creative thinking is encouraged and rewarded. They have a big focus on morale and team-work. They really seem to understand that happy employees work better. Very fast paced environment so you won't be sitting around on any one task for too long. Boredom is not a problem.

Cons

Only downside I see is the hours. Having the additional 30 minutes can be a strain for those employees with families/kids as it can really cut into those activities.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider dropping the additional 30 minutes to the workday. Maybe look at adding in some small window of flex hours. (Maybe allow start/stop times to vary within a 1 hour window).

Pros

In 2007 ADK ended with a third of the employees and a quarter of the profit they ended with in 2009, this place is a rocket ship. Most of the complaints I have read here are factually correct but come from people who would likely enjoy working at a bigger company. I particularly liked the comment one reviewer wrote about giving their multi-million dollar idea away 'for free' - that's what your salary is for. If you want to go and do that idea yourself then start your own company.

If you like a challenge, hate doing the same thing from day to day and view your time at Adknowledge about learning how to thrive at a startup then this is the place for you. Otherwise, stay away. All startups are messy, inefficient places. The people who do well at them don't want to mess around with process (aka 'bureaucracy'), love a fast pace and shrug off the other cr*p.

Other highlights:

- still not too much office politics, CEO usually cracks down on egotistical VPs
- engineers are respected generally and not treated like second class citizens
- lots of savvy people, almost everyone has a 'project on the side' or wants to
- strong bonds with colleagues at your level
- cost of living is really low, even the junior staff can afford a place of their own if they watch their money carefully
- shorter hours than any other startup I've worked up, I got to see my partner most evenings for dinner

Cons

The CEO is a young, very clever and highly energetic entrepreneur who would benefit from laying off a bit. Many seemingly crazy ideas that emanate from the execs are often imposed by him.

The Kansas City office has gotten a lot slower since the CEO moved to New York and sometimes we get blasted by a 'work harder' email, which I think is not the best way to incentivize people to do more.

After a couple of down years in the job market, the company is way behind on pay levels and needs to address these urgently.

Kansas City is HOT in the summer and even COLDER in the winter! You get to spend about six weeks a year outside, the rest of the time you stay bundled up in your home/car/office/bar.

Publicly there is a culture of accountability but the reality is this is applied inconsistently. Some stars who get a bad attitude can take months to get a warning (or worse) whereas others just disappear one day. Flip side of this is that when things go wrong initially they don't shoot the messenger generally.

It's a startup people. Can be frustrating when dumb details get dropped in the melee.

Advice to Senior Management

Your staff got you to where you are today, they can do a lot more if you just give them the chance. Morale would improve dramatically if there was less micro-management or better pay. Do both and nobody would ever leave.

Pros

In stark contrast to some of the reviews posted here, I love my job and I'm generally very satisfied with the company. It should be mentioned that Adknowledge is taking steps to become a more personable company; this includes the recent hiring of a VP of HR.

There have only been a few instances where I worked late; more often than not it was due to me just getting wrapped up in what I was doing and losing track of time. Nobody is cracking a whip or coming up with unrealistic deadlines.

 Perhaps it depends on what channel you work in, but some of the other reviews specifically mention scenarios I have never seen. For instance, when I come into work (on time) it's usually a ghost town. Same for when I leave; everyone usually gets up and leaves within 30 minutes of the end of business. That doesn't seem like the backbreaking 70-hr workweek environment I hear mentioned in other reviews...

One of the things I really like about Adknowledge is that managers are expected to be working managers. They are in cubes just like everyone else. In other words, there are no corner offices to complete for. Like it or not, you can't deny that Adknowledge tries their best to maximize ROI on every level of the company.

Having worked for many other companies, it's my belief that Adknowledge is really doing a lot of things right. Yes, the interview process is long and arduous, but the ultimate effect is that everyone has baseline intelligence and ability which exceeds many other companies. Additionally, everyone is up-to-speed on what they're doing and is generally at the top of their game. The company has no dusty old employees which just don't understand these "newfangled computer gizmos" and this is true for every department at all levels.

Cons

The primary downside right now is Adknowledge's reputation amongst developers in the local community. Adknowledge has a lot of disgruntled ex-employees sprinkled around; it's the company that everyone has heard a horror story about, it seems. Our reputation (and an inequality in pay) prevents us from attracting a lot of top-tier local talent from other companies. At a certain level, your best and most effective employees have to be lured away from their current positions with other companies and Adknowledge just doesn't have that pull yet.

Some people in Adknowledge management do pay too close attention to what time a developer's butt hits their chair in the morning. They haven't yet learned the lesson that 8 hours from an effective developer is worth 16 hours from an ineffective one. There are shocking and frankly hilarious company-wide emails that go out about this phenomenon sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Some of the management is very nice and easy to work with. The salaries are higher than average and you will receive many perks including free lunches, 3 weeks vacation, cheap insurance, and free soda.

Cons

This place will work you very very long hours depending on the position you have. The team I was on was incredibly high stress and they expect you to learn at an incredibly fast pace. If family life is important to you or free time I would say work someplace else.

I hope I never have a job like this again.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be so rude and have more patience with new employees.

Pros

Overall it's a good atmosphere. Most of the employees at the company are talented and you can learn a lot from each other.

Cons

CEO is a micro-manager and changes the commission structure frequently. They have even retroactively reduced commissions on sales people if they have a good month.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to keep your sales department and grow to become a real company, just start paying the standard industry rate and stop playing games.