Parametric Technology Reviews

Pros

The starting pay is competitive, but don't expect it to rise.

Cons

Terrible. People will not return your calls if they don't feel you have anything to offer in return. The culture is worse than Congress, favors are counted and traded like commodities. Full of long-timers who hold their offices and responsibilities sacred and are unwilling to change. Any suggestions for improvement are treated as threats and result in manipulative backstabbing.

Yearly reviews rank you against your immediate peers, not against the goals that you've met for your department and company. So, if you're an exceptional employee and are on a team of exceptional employees you may be ranked low and passed over for a merit increase or promotion. Extremely unfair.

Overall it's a business run like a frat house and if you don't kiss up you'll get kissed off.

Advice to Senior Management

Trim the fat and remove the entrenched executive level who are full of bad habits learned from their predecessors. Fresh blood and a fresh perspective are the only hope for this company.

Pros

Cool technology, Good support people, Financially stable, Benefits package

Cons

Typical revenue first, people second software company
Sales goals unreasonable
Cronyism

Advice to Senior Management

Continue management changes and double down on partners

Pros

In general, the people are nice and easy to get along with. There is a semi-defined structure and process to how the business operates from day to day.

Cons

Does not follow through on promises. Employees don't feel part of the larger corporate team. Little to no positive or negative feedback from upper management.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees like to feel included. A kind word can go a long way. And if there is a problem or issue, why not address it.

Pros

Good work life balance, time off when needed, working from home is widely accepted. Interesting products and technology, and great name recognition.

Cons

Poor leadership, constant change of strategy from the top down. Layoffs 1x/yr They will change your position without asking, and have seen more demotions than promotions (except in management). Not encouraged to apply for open positions as they always hire outside. Raises are few and far between. Lots of hard workers overlooked here, cronyism is painfully prevalent and the politics are exhausting. Make the right friends to get ahead.

Advice to Senior Management

Get feedback from people on the front line every once in awhile and use it. Treat your employees with a bit more respect.

Pros

Good benefits compared with other companies. Working remotely is accepted as a norm. Chances of learning different technologies without leaving the same company.

Cons

Frequent shake-ups, changes of strategic direction, highly centralized power structure. Every employe watches carefully the stock price. When it dips - layoffs follow.

Advice to Senior Management

This used to be a better place to work. As the frequency of restructuring and direction changes picked-up - sense of ownership got diminished. Middle managers feel powerless and for decisions inevitably involve senior management. In my view, this makes the organization vulnerable.

Pros

Working with cutting edge, large scale technology

Cons

Have to like to work in a large company

Pros

Many of the very sharpest people I've ever dealt with work here, and I'm very pleased with my current chain of command

Cons

Overall very cliquish and political; too many stuffed shirts in senior management, treating the people who do the work and make the money like serfs laboring in the fields, rather than as valued resources. Too much lip service and hypocrisy in areas like "work-life balance", and "development", when the reality you see on the ground is to drive everyone as hard as possible, and give as little as possible in return. The annual review process is a joke, lots of time wasted on eye-wash, when the reality is that promotions and monetary rewards are based on things other than performance. Lots of really outstanding resources are leaving because they're tired of being treated like ****.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit strategizing, start focusing on execution. Nobody cares how brilliant your ideas are if you can't make them happen on the ground. Torturing the do-er's and insulting their intelligence for not "getting it" is counter-productive. Until you realize that you work for them, and not the other way around, you'll continue to under-achieve as you always have.

Pros

It is the creator of "the" CAD product, Pro/ENGINEER.
It has a few super talented mathematicians and engineers.
Office politics was minimal for a very long time.

Cons

In the recent year and half, company changed its strategics completely and very frequently.
Pro/ENGINEER's USP features were not leveraged in sales or internally for a few years.
Windchill organization performed the least value added projects with unnecessary meetings, overhead, and project management training (CMMI, SCRUM..).

Advice to Senior Management

Why Creo? Loyal Pro/ENGINEER customers' maintenance revenues could've generated so many optimal features in Pro/ENGINEER that could've benefited new & old customers. No one asked for Creo, and Pro/ENGINEER is not a commodity, it is meant and designed to be used by engineers.

Pros

Parametric Technology Corp (PTC) provides employees with excellent training in their available software packages. Their salary and benefits packages are average compared to their competitors.

Cons

The managers are technologically savvy, but most do not know how to manage people.
People who work from a Home Office (i.e. field personnel) have much higher workload requirements than those working at the corporate office without getting paid more.
For that reason, most people who leave PTC, do so because of the 80% (32 hours per week min) billable time requirement (travel can be up to 20 additional hours per week and is not considered billable).

Advice to Senior Management

If you are not leading your people from the front, you are following them.

Pros

Overall, the people within the company are great to work with and the products are exceptional. The vision of the company is strong and they are able to execute well on the strategy.

Cons

Too much bureaucracy. Intense silos with lots of politics. Top-down management approach that doesn't encourage or reward creativity from the trenches.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage people who are lower in the organization to take initiative and reward them for making the effort. Create a culture where "rapid failures" are encouraged and decisions can be made by more individuals, not just Sr. VPs.