Intervoice Reviews

Pros

The people are some of the best in the industry.

Cons

Too much work not enough people to do it all.

Advice to Senior Management

Sell it - oh yeah they did that!

Pros

People seem to be nicer than other companies I've worked for. Conveniently located in the downtown Mt. View off Castro Street with plenty of good dining options nearby.

Cons

The company has been recently merged by Convergys hence the culture change can happen down the road. Stock option is no longer offered across the board.

Advice to Senior Management

You should invest more in R&D.

Pros

Benefits package is fairly good, with decent health, vision, and dental coverage. Free espresso beats the usual company coffee swill. Mid-level management generally does a good job of shielding the engineers from meddling by the upper levels, most managers have some technical experience, and in the right groups there are chances to work on modern, progressive projects with interesting tools and techniques. Engineers generally have good latitude in implementation concerns and methods and (mostly) aren't forced into using the tools that someone got a good deal on. Turn over in most groups is fairly low, you're not working with a new face every other week or so.

Cons

While day to day engineering is relatively unhindered by upper management, the long term goals are disjointed and there usually seems to be no focus. At any given time there may be five overlapping releases of the same project, and there's no coordination by project management to get things into a logical release order. Most products seem to have a split brain between product-oriented releases and project (read, customer) custom changes. There really needs to be a separate professional services type group that works on customizing the core software products for individual customers. Again, in the long run, there's also an inability to keep customer support out of the engineers. It is not uncommon to spend an afternoon trying to fix a configuration issue on a shipped system, something that a level 1 or level 2 tech support organization could handle. Finally, there is a general sentiment that compensation is not up to par, there have been years where in lieu of raises everyone got a couple extra holidays. No bonus structure, stock-purchase plan axed, no real profit sharing beyond stock options.

Advice to Senior Management

It's all in flux since we just got bought out, but get some direction into product management instead of having a large set of customer demands trying to operate independently. Work out the product/project divide with most teams.

Pros

People are great and Intervoice as a company is flexible with employees and it is a great people place. Mostly mgrs are understanding and undestand your personal priorities. They always try to work around with you in terms of schedule flexibility. Unlimited Internet Access and the starbucks like coffee machine are some of the perks. Benefits are real good and they work to keep employees real satisfied. Telecommuting policy. Stock options and great 401 K benefits. Good vacation policy. Educational assistance program and inter company change of jobs is encouraged. Priority is given to employee comfort. No cubicles..every person has his/her own office

Cons

Chaotic Project Mgmt and disorganization. Customer is GOD, so sometimes mismanagment of priorities. No proper career path for people who want to grow or learn more. Live with it type of attitude. Pay cucks. Get paid much lower than the industry out there. No salary uniformity between people who have been there and newer people who join

Advice to Senior Management

More focus on scheduling and pushing back on customer when the quality of the the product is being compromised

Pros

Decent pay for the industry

Cons

Frequent layoffs and strategy shifts. Too many acquisitions in 05-06. Top management is desperate to raise the stock price so they encourage employees to swing for the cheap seats rather than hitting a single or double. Company is having trouble moving into the 21st century and is stuck with its old mindset. Top management doesn't listen to lower-level people.

Advice to Senior Management

Retire Bob Richey. He's a nice guy, but it's time to go. Seriously rethink Jim Milton.