DST Reviews

Pros

You won't find better medical insurance from an employeer around here. (Except the Vision Insurance.....it sucks).

Cons

Have of your development time is spent cutting past the red-tape this company has surrounded itself in.

Advice to Senior Management

All of Middle-Mgmt and above need to go. You're as bad as congress.... you've more than over-stayed your welcome.

Pros

1) Excellent benefits package
2) ability to move within the DST family of companies among many types of groups
3) though we get hit with recessions too, client contract structures usually help us weather them a bit better.

Cons

1) in 2010 DST had its first large scale layoffs ever. This used to be its one shining feature that made it better than other local companies like Sprint, Cerner and Garmin. Now, it's lost bragging rights.
2) Management communicates well on day to day issues but employees 'disappear' mysteriously, only for us to find out later they have been laid off. There is no communication on the day of admitting that there were X cuts in Y department or when more are coming. This is duplicitous.

Advice to Senior Management

1) We have one company product that is not competitive and the company knows it. Put the R&D into making it as competetive as our other products.
2) Your layoff practices feel like mafia hits. Everyone knows people got laid off. Be honest after they are gone. Preserve the dignity of those terminated but come on; don't treat the rest of us like we're stupid and won't notice.

Pros

There are plenty of different areas of software programming utilized within the company to get a foothold in the door. They do have a pretty good Health Plan, for now. Management seems to be pretty lenient on letting you leave if you need to for Appointments. They also offer lots of internal classes for employees to take.

Cons

You can get pigeonholed pretty quickly. The pay and raises are way below where they should be. There are a lot of mediocre people working there and the people who do stand out aren't really recognized or promoted unless you kiss upper management's you know what. Still kind of stuck in an 80's office mentality (still no jeans, bland cubicles, etc..), although it is slightly improving.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your performers and trim the fat...Most people I know there are ready to jump ship when they can, and most of those people are the top performers (or could be if given opportunity)

Pros

Friendly people, great atmosphere, benefits are good too.

Cons

Salary is terrible, communication isn't great and things are inconsistent

Advice to Senior Management

Be consistent in the things you want and expect from the associates.

Pros

Pay is good. Benefits are OK. Profit sharing is reasonable.

Cons

Your job will be outsourced eventually. Absolutely no loyalty from management to long term employees. Project quality has rapidly detiorated. We used to do "zero defect" installations. Now... if a project has less than 100 issues, it is considered a success. One recent "successful" project had 400 documented issues. This is embarrassing for professionals to have to deal with this.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to get people to leave by suddenly treating them extremely poorly and fabricating poor reviews. Show some spine. Stand up for your people instead of passively outsourcing all of their jobs.

Pros

There are pretty flexible hours and a decent amount of vacation. The employees are good people and make for a pretty good work environment.

Cons

I don't feel respected as an employee, I just feel like another nameless worker. Promotions and raises are close to non existent. The management is all incredibly old and sometimes I'm not sure they really know what's going on in the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on treating your employees well rather than only focusing on your profit margins. Do this and maybe employees would have incentive to work harder.

Pros

Get experience in financial services.

Cons

Low Pay. Limited opportunites for growth or a high paying salary.

Pros

ability to gain experience in technology

Cons

silo management. Poor salary and working conditons

Advice to Senior Management

give raises

Pros

The people are great to work with.
The health benefits and retirement were good.
DST does a lot within the community.

Cons

Low compensation for non-management positions.
Management is not fair to all employees.
Too many levels of management.
There have been layoffs in 2010

Advice to Senior Management

I would cut some of the layers of management and pay employees what they are really worth. I would also start giving regular employees bonus encentive plans. It was not fair that only management positions were bonus eligible.

Pros

Great benefits - health, dental, life, tuition reimbursement, theatre tickets
Excellent training - fun classes offered over a wide variety of topics - the options to learn are never-ending
Some flexibility allowed to balance work and home life
DST is very involved in the restoration of downtown KC

Cons

Promotions and raises based on tenure instead of performance
Pay scale seems to be pretty low compared with other companies of a similar size
Working with DST "lifers" that actually hinder output or simply take up space

Advice to Senior Management

Evaluate performance more honestly and get rid of the sub-par performers. Many associates receive reviews indicating effort that meets expectations when they are not meeting expectations. It seems like many departments would be more effective if they let the under-performers go and paid more for those who exceed expectations.