Fair Isaac Reviews in San Diego, CA Area

Pros

you can make a difference
Working with really smart people throughout the company, at all levels
Benefits
If you show initiative you will get noticed

Cons

Sometimes reasons for decisions from Management aren't given
Working in different sites makes it harder for Management to see the job one is doing

Advice to Senior Management

Certain groups need more work life balance. Just because certain senior management is accustomed to working non-stop, he/she should not expect their employees to be the same. It causes burnout.

Pros

FICO presents a unique opportunity for employees and shareholders. With a diverse portfolio of product and service offerings, FICO has thousands of direct and indirect customers which yield a healthy install base of recurring revenue. Thru keen expense management, the net result is a predictable cash flow and stable financial enviornment. Knowing that you come into work without having to worry about a paycheck or raise financing is refreshing and allows focus on your core function.

Further, my experience has led me to believe that you, as a FICO employee, can develop and grow based on your performance. The work ethic/product does get recognized and current management creates paths for promotion/career edification internally.

Cons

Expense control is a must. The negative to this equation is that your headcount runs lean. Management asks a lot in terms of deliverables and output - but rightfully so.
As well, the Company doesn't grow at a Google's pace (who does?). 3% growth in FY11 doesn't make for the birth of new divisions/product lines.

Pros

Name recognition, some market leading products

Cons

All business segments under attack by either FICO's own inability to deliver or competitors nibbling away at their footprint. Company has a hard time generating top line growth - consequently they manage cost (and workforce) agressively in order to look good... essentially the company shrunk by 1/3 over the last 3 years.

Advice to Senior Management

You got to understand the details if you want to fix the problem. Just producing high level presentations and announcements does nothing to move the company forward.

Pros

Flexibility is good depending on your manager. The office building in San Diego is nice and most of the people are pleasant to work with.

Cons

Unrealistic expectations from some managers who don't believe in work/life balance. Communication severely lacking in Finance and Accounting. Employee morale is low and shows no signs of improving. San Diego salaries are low compared to the rest of the region. Company is so focused on sales that support functions are taken for granted.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more effectively and treat employees like adults. Make collaboration between finance and accounting functions easier rather than keeping everyone in their silos. Create an environment of knowledge sharing.

Pros

Challenging and Exciting Projects . Field of work is interesting

Cons

Less Recognizable , Incompetance pay and benefits, Less growth Uncertain Mgmt

Pros

Casual relaxed work environment. Some interesting projects. Pay was OK and benefits were good. Nice work location in San Diego office.

Cons

Total lack of focus and product expertise in upper management. Does not recognize the value of quality employees or their technical skills and knowledge. Promotes based on politics and who you know. Recent downturn in economy lead to many layoffs which made coming to work everyday kind of nerve wracking.

Advice to Senior Management

Get programs in place to recognize your best employees and retain and reward them for doing a good job. Flush the overpaid slackers.

Pros

Good people, high level of intellectual energy, some great client relationships. Good reputation in the marketplace, especually in the area of scoring and analytics

Cons

Some questionable leadership decisions in the past, too introspective at times and too focuse3d on short term, 90 day achievements rather than the bigger 3 year picture

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on the long term not just on the next 90 day or quarterly results

Pros

In the technical/scientific side, the intelligence and friendliness of most of the co-workers. Hiring for good personality (lack of aggressive arrogance) and high ability. Willingness to help and share.

Few egotistical mainpulators I've come in contact with on my side.

Science + tech types who get their job done well.

Cons

Internal computer support for scientific needs is woefully underdeveloped (hardware and software) far worse than even basic academic labs, much less a Yahoo or Google. Essentially they have no clue and no distinction between some random app-server and hard-core scientific cluster simulation. Continuous downscaling about what IT will support or offer or install, enforced centralization, and of course totally forbidding science or devel to administer their own systems & software installation (i.e. be root).

See "advice to senior management".

Advice to Senior Management

CEO talks about how analytics are 'core' of company (indeed without modeling nobody would buy the mediocre software, except maybe Blaze---and that was acquired externally), but it still seems to be viewed --- or at least acted upon --- from the very top as just another random software company, which it isn't.

Major new product upgrades/releases get designed and decisions made with hardly any of the scientific staff knowing what is going in or having any input, and as a result, most decision end up being made by software engineering, with all change driven around their needs. Modeling is often just a

Where is the Chief Analytics Officer? Somebody with fundamental machine learning/modeling knowledge and the clout to drive long-term fundamental progress both from top-down ideas, and sponsoring individual scientist ideas (the "entry level" science is pretty good) to go from idea to product.

Fundamentally, scientists seem to be ignored by the rest of FIC management / business except when there's a bug (either FIC's fault or client's fault) and clients are whining. They just plug models into the small, obsolete, box set up for them by the software development design.

There is no communication from the FIC business side---most of the client partners seem to be inept in interaction and absent otherwise. Scientists don't even know whom to talk to about any specific client, and don't even know whom to ask. Many data problems come from client misunderstanding, but there is no push from FIC business to convince them to fix problems (as it would help the models they get).

There is no communication whatsover about what features competitors have and that we might think about working/improving on---indeed no communication about what the names of the the competitors even are, except through informal grapevine and employee departures.

Pros

There are some really amazing people at Fair Isaac, and the company has a strong value proposition to offer the world.

Cons

Someone once joked that Fair Isaac feels like the "Fisher Price My First Corporation" - and I couldn't agree more. In their struggle to be the 'everything to everybody" company, the leadership team seems to go from one initiative to the next while seemingly hoping that the latest furniture rearrangement will somehow solve the bigger problems. If only the leadership would make the hard and tough decisions around restructuring the business and focusing on only the core opportunities, it could be a really great place to work!

Advice to Senior Management

Focus. Focus. Focus. Either replace the COO or consider seriously limiting his sphere of influence - he's more in the way of change than a champion for it.

Pros

Fair Isaac's policy towards telecommuting is by far one of the most relaxed in the industry. Average salary is much higher than if you were to work in any of the industries that Fair Isaac serves. The balance between work and life(personal) can be easily managed.

Cons

The vision has been blurry over the past few years especially during the TG years. MG's leadership seems to have brighten the path a little bit, but it now comes down to executing that vision. Still too many middle management and not enough foot soldiers to actually do the work. Benefits seems to be dwindling each year.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide your people more ownership on what they do on a daily basis, get rid of the "swim in your own lane" philosophy as this does not allow your team members to be innovative.