Guidewire Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – So many talented people on the team. Collegiality is just fantastic. If you have ANY problem colleagues will help you no matter how long it takes. Developers are also completely shielded from unreasonable deadlines or customer commitments.

Cons – Compensation is good but could be better. 401k benefits need to become better. Health benefits are OK but really should be mote competitive.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep doing what you are doing.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for more than a year

Pros – I was a little worried when I first was ask to join Guidewire. I was a programmer with a lot of experience but not in the insurance industry. When I went through training I found that all the folks that I trained with and all the developers, instructors and others were so helpful. Great folks that help insure that we all grow and achieve our maximum potential. What a wonderful feeling to ge a Guidewire employee. I have been with the company for over a year now and the experience continues to be rewarding in so many ways.

Cons – The amount of travel as a field consultant can be a bit stressful. Guidewire is well aware of this and makes every attempt to reduce the impact of being a Professional Services employee. They make it feel like you are part of an extended family.

Advice to Senior Management – Good Job Management !!!
Keep up the good work :)

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – At Guidewire I've been consistently met with respect, collegiality, good communications, and a high level of competency and commitment in my teammates. Compensation, travel, benefits, and generally respectful positive interactions. Leadership is competent and engaged, and evaluations are well-structured and fair. The work is interesting, challenging, and utilizes my skills and talents fully.

Guidewire is committed to outstanding products and services, and our great success derives from that commitment.

Cons – The work is so interesting that it's sometimes challenging to pull back into personal time.

Advice to Senior Management – I think it's important that we continue to walk the talk at all levels, and focus on the positive, and solutions rather than problems. Guidewire needs to remain at the highest levels in these areas.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great business model; cornered P&C Insurance core systems software market; excellent software development; strong support; good track record of successful implementations; smart people; global focus

Cons – Lacking the communication and workflow policies and systems for scaling effectively; dedication to promotion from within leads to strong cohesion at the top, but little perspective regarding the plight of new employees and how to keep people motivated when advancement seems to tied more to seniority and social relationships than individual skill-sets or the strategic needs/gaps of the organization

Advice to Senior Management – Basically, realize that you are no longer a start-up and start imitating the practices of the larger organizations that you are starting to resemble...use data to make decisions, evaluate employee potential, fill gaps in policies, processes, governance, bring in outside leadership when needed.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for less than a year

Pros – The best part about Guidewire is the people. They're all super-smart and want to help you get your work done. The software is top-notch and always getting better. I've never been prouder to work for a company. Oh, and I don't have to lie to clients anymore. That was a big issue at a previous job.

Cons – The biggest con is being in-between projects. Although, I've been told that the more experience you get, the less and less time you spend on the bench.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for less than a year

Pros – relaxed enviorment, your work is always based on knowledge and fact - never emotion. Great stock amounts given when hired ( I assume based on level of hire). There is a huge investment in traing prior to becoming a billable resource.

Cons – 401k for americans is less than desirable. phone remburisment is very low comparativly.

Advice to Senior Management – There should be no cap, or a much higher cap on max contibution to 401K, as well as a higher match %. Food perdiam should be higher, money does not go far now days even when being as fruggle as possible (not worht eating McDonalds each day to not incure personal costs). Phone remburisment for a traveling consulant needs to be higher that 50$ in USA. There are no carriers who will give unlimited data for 50$ in USA and it not worth your time managing how much data you are using while syncing email/calendar/etc.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Guidewire as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Lots of newly created jobs. Overall good management and people. Great tools, technology and processes in place.

Cons – Some difficulty in keeping management.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire

Pros – Fortunate with top quality employees and good company culture from the early days.
Good product and customer pipeline so far.

Cons – Talent cultivation and retention remain challenging in recent years. Start to see high exit rate in development for both old timers and newcomers.
Rapid increase in organization hierarchy. Currently six levels from individual contributors to VP in Development.
Inexperienced and disconnected management for a fast growing organization.
Compensation and reward system don't inspire good behavior of individual contributors.

Advice to Senior Management – Repair visibility by reconnecting with individual contributors.
Avoid evaluating people based on short-term sales or superficial result.

– I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Guidewire full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company is committed to customer success like no other and it makes it a very rewarding place to work. The consulting organization, which I am a part of, is full of great people who are a pleasure to work with as well. At least for the next 5 years the prospects for the company look very bright as we have the best product out there that's only getting better.

Cons – The insurance industry is not a very exciting place to work in, however being a part of a fun Guidewire team makes things more exciting. At this point it's hard to pinpoint any negatives, however with fast growth there is a risk that the culture in the company will change.

Advice to Senior Management – Stay focused on core expertise in P&C insurance for as long as it allows the company to grow as we don't want our focus to be diluted by trying to go into other industries/types of insurance.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Guidewire

Pros – Ethos was awesome, everyone was friendly and always ready to help. The work environment was as far from hostile as you could imagine. The energy of both the people and the open office space allowed for much more freedom of thought, and contributed to a workplace that is far more healthy than others.

Cons – Housing situation was a little iffy as the area is quite expensive