NexTag Reviews

Pros

- Nice building
- Low level people are nice
- Great place for VPs, Directors, Senior Managers...

Cons

- Pay is generally low and no bonuses (oh wait, we got a couple of hundreds of *bonus* though)
- More responsibility without being compensated. No recognition
- Not enough growth opportunities. Chance of promotion is low
- Too much politics and many CEO's (low morale) clones.
- Lack of training; therefore, low level people are forced to deal with leaders who have no leadership.
- Smart people are leaving
- Employees motivation right now is very low due to changes leaded by the new CEO' with not so impressive track record.

Advice to Senior Management

For CEO and his friends
- Pay people what they are worth to help employee morale
- Stop creating fake executive positions in order to hire Jeff Katz friends from Orbitz and leapfrog, especially when we have an hiring freeze.
- Company is falling apart. do something
- Stop dreaming, face reality

Directors/VP/Managers
- Get copy of Management 101, so you see what you are lacking.

Pros

* good pay
* nice people at lower levels

Cons

* title inflation - new employees
* no professional development
* no personal development

Advice to Senior Management

consider hiring more engineers instead of mgmt

Pros

New management has definitely loosened the wallet to ensure benefits and work-place environment is condusive; We are also investing heavily in marketing and look-feel to improve future brand recognition.

Cons

Top layer management is gone -- all new managers are cronies and think that they are gods looking to fix a well-run ship. In this process we have hired tons of VPs/GMs etc, but not nearly enough mid-tier and worker-bees.
Work is even more tougher and demanding as now there are more managers who don't even know how the ship works and are demanding us to work even harder.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect, retain, and reward current worker-bees as you rebuild/rehire top-management.

Pros

Decent Pay
New nice office space and amenities
Good location
Nice and talented co-workers at lower levels
Company still has strong cash flow (although not for long with current management)

Cons

Executive management is incompetent in every imaginable way. period.
Too many executives and not enough Dev, QA, OPS folks.
Feedback is not welcome. Dont be fooled by Yammer posts.
Everything (even nonsense and idiotic stuff) is pushed down on already stretched low level employees with total disregard for employee productivity or morale.
Daily status updates and micro-managing via project management tools due to lack of trust.

Advice to Senior Management

Honeymoon is over. Pack up your boxes as its just a matter of time before the nice & patient providence folks will realize their mistake and come with bunch of executive pink slips.

Pros

Agree with good points of other reviews: ok pay, snacks, new office, dividends, decent coworkers. To get true picture, filter out overly positive reviews written by managers at behest of executives.

Cons

- Overly demanding managers. They get angry and throw tantrums when they don't get what they want, happy to put you on death march. Engineers are tired of this and looking to leave.
- No incentive to work hard. Shares not worth much. Bonus/salary increase go to new managers or managers who take your credit.
- Too much politics. Company very top-heavy with more political battles. Good upper management given up and leaving. No bright future to keep them. What does that say for future IPO?
- Too many managers. Planning extremely slow. 6 months to draw 5 slides for Engineering strategy. You kidding me? Once slides shown, already too late to execute and engineers blamed for failure.
- Wrong people promoted and hired. Some good engineers promoted but they're selfish. They, with new management, marginalize good engineers. They hire friends to get more political power.
- New management not interviewed for skills. Many doing the job for first time, repeating past mistakes. They think they're smart, but their decisions and work are bad. Like they've never shopped online before.
- Bad business strategy. When more engineers needed, veteran engineers laid off and their salaries given to new VPs who haven't done anything.
- Hard to imagine Nextag got worse but it did. "Nextag Way" persists: management thinks they're perfect and make right decisions, deaf to objections and layoff those who disagree. Because of past success, they feel justified.

Advice to Senior Management

Where is shareholder value? Red alert Board of Directors and Providence Equity Partners!

Pros

Decent pay, talented and nice co-workers, company sponsored lunches and events, new CEO is trying to bring positive changes to the company.

Cons

No option to be able to work from home, no flex-time here, lack of transparency in management communications, top-down decision making.

Pros

If you plan to join Nextag as an executive, director or manager, life is great. You'll get an awesome salary. Nextag is a cash cow and has money to buy you. The breakdown is roughly Manager: $135k, Director: $150k and Executive: $200k. You'll also get an inflated title because Nextag is desperate to hire. They can only hire cronies so they have to offer something more to others. You'll also have excellent job security because of the hiring difficulties. I've never heard of upper management being punished or fired.

You only have to produce a small amount of real work. Maybe a document or spreadsheet here and there. No one is looking at the quality of that work so you can slide by, work an 8a-3p day and play around on Youtube, Twitter or Facebook. Your daily routine will be meetings and "playing the game." To be successful among management peers, make yourself look like the go-to guy by reading blogs like nicolasleroy.fr, reading feature bugs from other employees and echoing the ideas. You just need to talk a lot, agree with the boss and say agreeable things. The challenge is to make sure your team achieves quarterly and yearly goals. There are no guidelines so as long as the team achieves the goals, your Nextag career will flourish no matter how you did it. You can micromanage your team, demand they work long hours and decide whether to give them credit or take it yourself. The "worker" employees are given little power or say. There's no real peer review system. If they complain, as long as you "played the game," management will side with you in your decisions. You can also make life unhappy for the rebellious or disobedient workers. This is a common Nextag practice and usually people quit before you have to fire them because they are so miserable. The best part... if your team fails to achieve a goal, it's not your fault, but the fault of your workers and their inability to execute. The workers are the problem, not your leadership.

Cons

If you don't join Nextag as a manager, think carefully before joining, specially with how Nextag directors and executives behave. Few are good. Most are bad with their complacency, inexperience, and lack of training. It's even worse now that there are many managers from crony hiring and few people to do actual work. Management often makes aggressive demands, sets tight schedules and actively micromanages. Workers are merely resources to achieve a means to an end.

If you can't meet the tight schedules, you won't be rewarded. This is the most likely scenario because managers are under pressure to meet their goals and have no one to do it. In other words, the burden falls on you, sucker. You can see this happening all the way to the top. CEO Jeff found out that his pet feature would not be implemented. How did he respond? He increased micromanagement. If you do meet the schedule, compensation-wise, you'll be given a small bonus of $1k. If you go above and beyond, you'll be given a small bonus of $1-2k, a salary increase of 5%, maybe some shares, and maybe a promotion after a few years. The shares however are underwater. So you're working for salary. Don't expect appreciation for your work. "Thank you" is a phrase rarely uttered and management feedback is not constructive, consisting more of tasks and critiquing than development.

Remember. You are a resource and your career development and personal well-being are not important to the business. Managers are not your friends. They do not have your best interests at heart. They're there to run the business and collect their dues. They can easily turn on you. If you're being actively trained or treated nicely, it is because Nextag has no choice. They are unable to hire someone above you or an equivalent. They must retain and squeeze more out of you. The more they get out of you, the greater the chance of completing their goals, which means more money and rewards and the less they have to worry about the daunting task of hiring.

If you have some talent, Nextag might be an okay place to learn the ropes, get experience and see what's good vs bad, but don't stay for more than 2-3 years. You quickly max out on what you can learn and what you can endure. Many employees left after a short stint and found places that are more rewarding. Browse LinkedIn for examples. If you have an offer from a top tier company, go there instead. Few companies treat you as well as Facebook and Google do. Nextag doesn't come close. If you don't have much talent, where you're not an all-star but can still contribute, make sure to negotiate your salary. Nextag has a history of low-balling offers, but because they're desperate to hire and there are few worker bees, you can probably get a higher salary through simple negotiation. On the bright side, for those just looking for a paycheck, Nextag is a great place. As long as you do something, even just a little, you may not be rewarded or treated as well as others, but you'll have a steady paycheck and you can choose to ignore the manager's demands and schedules. You can work the same 8a-3p day as management. Nextag's management is bad at firing low performing employees. They only try to make your life difficult and hope you'll quit someday. If you don't mind the environment, just stay quiet, don't go too much against the grain, stay forever and get your money.

Advice to Senior Management

Help us worker bees get out of the gutter!

Pros

Decent work life balance; some great colleagues; decent pay (average or slightly below the same level elsewhere); Nice new (and expensive) building. Free coffee and cola.

Cons

1. Senior management is clueless (and incompetent) but acts as if it knows how to run the business.
2. Most of the middle management is incompetent and passes blame to lower level employees.
3. Too many VPs and directors. Proportionately more managers (Managers/Directors/VPs etc.) than workers. If you are joining at the lower level ... watch out! When honeymoon gets over ugly faces will be seen.
4. Coterie of employees from the previous employers of the C-suite execs brought in at puffed up positions. Cronyism rules! CEO's pet projects are favored.
5. No respect for employees.
6. Some in HR are quite rude.
7. Engineering culture is shifting to MBA culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Dreams don't make money. So stop just dreaming! Replace the incompetent among yourselves. Cut the fluff at the top (including the very top). Respect your employees. Forget about being the top 5 employer ... try top 500!

Pros

Interesting machine learning problems to work on, huge data, my work has immediate impact

Cons

nextag is not yet know to the wide audience.

Pros

There are some good new people who have joined since along with the new CEO. If you live in San Mateo, you might have a short commute. Little is expected of people, and most have little authority, so if you are interested in a 9-5 where you punch the clock and are not challenged, this might be a great fit. There is free cereal, chips and coffee - just try not to use your hands...

Cons

See above - this is a company that gives employees little responsibility, little direction, and little accountability. Those who have been there since before 2010 have learned the worst management skills imaginable from one of the biggest a**holes in the valley. Keep 'em in the dark, and ride 'em. To top it off, the building is a total dump, the bathrooms are disgusting, and there is no good eats within walking distance.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire everyone at or above manager level who has been there since before 2010.