Blast Radius Reviews

Pros

Flexible hours and work environment. Coworkers made the difference between another shop versus somewhere that people wanted to come into.

Cons

Management had no interest in what would keep workers happy and wanting to work. management decisions were not in the best interest of the future of the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Management has to look beyond getting paid today. Decisions need to be made for the benefit of the future of the company.

Pros

The pace is extremely quick, which can lead to a vast wealth of experiences. Also the actual staff that you will be working with are great people to work with

Cons

No work life balance, no recognition of any of the things you will do for the company. No leadership, poor management, poor process and has too much fat at the top and not enough staff to keep up with the wild promises.

Advice to Senior Management

Trim the fat at the top and try to retain some of the excellent staff that are still there.

Pros

Flexible work environment, interesting and intelligent coworkers, sometimes interesting projects. Some good process, but project-dependent.

Cons

Getting pulled in different directions when being resourced to multiple projects; sometimes a lot of extra hours necessary to get things done; estimates are never revisited; sometimes terrible scope-creep; low level of software "engineering", most work is short-term gain (which often mimics short-term projects). No increases in compensation for quite some time. Not a good place to further your career except perhaps as a junior/intern, but you may learn a lot of bad habits.

Many projects are touted and bragged about (eg. in company meetings) but then fall into obscurity. Only much later do you hear that they bombed.

Lots of young employees; not a lot of support or connection for those with families.

Advice to Senior Management

Form dedicated teams, get a handle on resourcing, actually pay people for extra hours. Continue to push back on ridiculous clients. Don't let your employees be taken advantage of. Where is the career path?

Pros

Definitely a great group of people who are very close knit

Cons

Lack of reward and recognition. Below industry standard in terms of salary and benefits

Advice to Senior Management

Reevaluate systems and processes. And encourage work life balance such more days off.

Pros

The company employes some very talented people, making it a creatively inspirational environment in which to work. HR has created a good social environment with many fun social activities occuring on a regular basis.

Cons

The vision of the company continues to change and is written in flowery and ineffective words. The CEO often speaks of wanting to create something innovative like Apple, but never seems ot achieve this; lots ot talk, little action.

Advice to Senior Management

The management team, including the CEO needs to focus more on the KISS principle, and using a more pragmatic language when describing the value chain of the company.

Pros

The projects you get to work on are very interesting and sometimes are leading edge. Many of the staff are very, very talented, they are among the most talented people I've ever worked with.

Cons

There is no respect for employees and their life - people are overworked and there is no effort to keep in mind that people have a life outside of work. 60 hour weeks are common. Management provides no support in terms of pushing back on unreasonable clients and in recognizing employee issues. The workplace is completely chaotic with the worse leadership I've ever worked with.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a backbone.

Pros

Team of talented and driven colleagues. Unique work environment. Great location in the heart of Amsterdam.

Cons

Badly run by Senior Management based in Canada who know nothing about European business. They have no respect for their staff or their clients. They have lost most of their talent due to this and their incompetency to win exciting projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the senior management before they destroy all the hard work that has been put into the European operations. This business would be better lead locally with a strong CEO and Director of Operations.

Pros

great group of people
learn very quickly due to chaos(sink or swim)
you can make a difference

Cons

poor leadership
lack of focus
bodyshopping
its not a people business
management hide behing email

Advice to Senior Management

concentrate on the people as they are what make you money
deliver on your promises to both client and consultants
learn the meaning of the word expectations

Pros

There are opportunities to work on projects with a great mix of technology and design, sometimes with some innovative concepts. There are many talented people, particularly in the design and strategy units. The atmosphere is laid-back and friendly, yet committed and hard-working.

Cons

There is a feeling that employees are not respected by senior management, and in general project staffing is driven far too much by spreadsheet junkies not people managers. Employees are moved between projects freely with little consideration for the negative impact on the client or the employee. Many technology-focused projects run into difficulties due to fundamental problems with the way technology is run within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in experienced people to replace current management who know how to deliver highly technical projects successfully.

Pros

To work with some of the other talented employees and the social environment.
Also the chance to work with some exciting clients.
A 1 month paid sabbatical after 3 years (if you can last that long).

Cons

Being treated as a replaceable piece.
Having to fight for any sort of pay increase.
Putting in crazy sweatshop overtime to satisfy those exciting clients (and some not so exciting).
Layoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward employees properly for their hard work and patience.
Stop giving speeches since you bring moral down every time you talk.
Fix the fact that business development has no accountability for the projects/timelines they sell. They get their commission no matter what.
Stop bending over to everything the client demands. Stick up for you team every once in awhile so they don't keep getting the short end of the stick.