Pros

Compared to other companies I have worked at, CoStar has fantastic health benefits and competitive pay. The people are great to work with and everyone works very hard. Everyone wants to succeed, but is often impeded by management.

Cons

There is no work/life balance. There is only CoStar. In addition to a normal 40 hour week, you are expected to work mornings, nights, weekends and holidays.

It is very difficult to succeed at CoStar. Your goals are never clearly communicated and they are a constantly moving target. Management doesn't seem to have any strategy or vision for the company beyond next week. Projects are typically rushed out the door incomplete and the open issues are ignored and soon forgotten until they cause problems in the future.

The managers are afraid of the executives. There is definitely a culture of fear. Everyone is afraid to say that a project needs more time or planning. No one wants to be the person to hold up a project, even for a valid reason.

Many decisions give me the impression that executive management is inexperienced. They definitely lack any people or leadership skills. I'm amazed the company continues to succeed and grow in spite of them. That is just a testament to how hard their employees actually work. They have always operated this way and they are very resistant to change.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect and listen to your employees. You are not the only people in the company that have good ideas.

More planning and design need to go into projects. We shoot ourselves in the foot quite often. A lot of additional, unnecessary work could be avoided if we just planned things more thoroughly.