Advent Software – “Working at Advent Software”

Pros

Advent Software has a great corporate culture with the caveat that each group and department is a little different. It's a stable company. If you find the right group for yourself, it's a really great place to work. One of the best places I've worked at and I've worked at a good handful of companies. It's the longest I've stayed at any company. The people here are intelligent, curious, well traveled and can bring their dogs to work (it doesn't seem like it would work but the dogs are surpringly well behaved.) The managers are empowered to make decisions and Advent is nimble enough to adapt/change directions when needed. Advent has a lot of programs, resources and provides training for employees. The company really promotes growh opportunities for employees internally. DiMarco is a strong and competent CEO so in terms of the company growing and heading in the right direction - I have full confidence there. The company can only continue to grow - because I have this confidence in the company - I'm fully maxed out on my ESPP plan and I plan to hold on. Advent has offices all over the world so there are opportunities to move around if one is interested. For the appropriate jobs, Advent is flexible and open minded to commuting or working from home. Most of the managers are personable and allow the people under them to come and go for things like Dr's appointments or taking care of their kids. Work-Life balance is something Advent does well. They place their trust in the employee that they will be responsible for doing their job and getting done what needs to be done. A sense of community with peers is what is also very nice here. Many of us become friends or do activities together outside of work.

Cons

Finding the right group and manager is important - I suppose this is important anywhere one would go. I've been in 2 roles at Advent - learned a lot but one of the groups was definitely a better fit than the other. Teams and groups have their own subcultures so finding the right group is very important. Vacation is frozen at 3 weeks for 4 years. It would be nice if employees accrued an extra day of vacation every year they worked. The 401K program has very limited options for investments and employee matching could be better. Advent could do a bit better on the employee ownership (Stock option) front by giving a little more stock options. Senior Management communication isn't as clear as it should be. The different business units in Advent are very silo'd and sometimes it feels like the different units are completely separate companies instead of one integrated company. It's understandable that every group has different priorities, but at times there lacks true joint effort where it's needed. Deep emphasis on revenue/business end groups, sometimes the nuts and bolts departments are not recognized enough.

Advice to Senior Management

More clarity in senior management communication. Some team building events for groups outside of revenue creating/business end groups. There is so much emphasis on those groups but the nuts and bolts of the business is sometimes ignored and those are the groups who put a huge amount of effort in making things happen. Once the deal is sold, it's all about delivery. More awareness of Advent's business as a whole. Better collaboration between business units including aligning priorities between different groups at times. Continue the path of growth and prudence as this company has been great with and continue looking after employees. When someone is let go or jobs are cut, many of us would appreciate being honest about it and not "dressing up" the communication in a PR format for internal employees.