Esurance – “Oppressive environment”

Pros

Descent salary and benefits. That's about it.

Cons

Horrible management, software side of the house was run like the insurance side of the house. I do not think management knew how to run a software development team. Very timid about adopting new technologies. I do not feel my input was ever heard (though it was asked). We were still using ie6, Visual Studio 2003 with .Net 1.1 and were not allowed to take advantage of emerging technologies.

Advice to Senior Management

Your development teams do not work the same as your insurance product teams. Allow your middle and lower management to do their jobs and have more say in the direction of projects. Micromanagement does not equal efficiency and higher margins. It equals disgruntled employees and stifled creativity. Software developers are creative people. Give them room to work and express themselves. Embrace new technologies. They will very likely save you money in the middle to long run and will give your works higher job satisfaction.