QAD Reviews

Former Employee – worked at QAD full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, close-knit team, opportunities for autonomy.

Cons – Typical pressures imposed by lagging economy.

Advice to Senior Management – Scrutinize some middle-management positions.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Friendly environment, nice people, relaxed/flexible work hours, opportunity to learn

Cons – The management has a tendency to hire for less which affects the quality of the employees.

Salaries are in the lower end (in the very lower end) and won't increase significantly over the years (2-3% tops).

Bad human resource and performance management; everybody is treated same regardless of the performance.

No career path whatsoever. You are mostly stuck with the position that you started for "years" if you don't leave the company.

Lack of communication between upper management and employees.

A good company if you need something better than a government job, a great company if you want to commit a "Career Suicide"..

Advice to Senior Management – The truly engaged and talented people are the real asset of your company, take good care of them..

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – --Friendly people-- Most coworkers are reasonable, friendly people with good industry experience and genuine interest in their work. There isn't a lot of socializing in the corporate office, but no one is mean.

--Semi-flexible work environment (depends on your department). Great for parents and families.

--Working here generally isn't that demanding. Telecommuting an occasional option for most employees.

--Gym on-site-- Kept clean and in good working order, a great place to decompress and meet people you don't otherwise encounter in your workday.

--Lunch provided-- Nothing to write home about, but it's free.

--Beautiful location.

Cons – --No opportunities for advancement or upward mobility-- Promotions and raises almost never happen. Middle management has to fight hard to reward their employees for work done well.

--Below-average compensation and below-average supplies-- Pay is far below industry standard, which is not unusual for Santa Barbara county, but even then QAD is near the bottom of the barrel. Taking a comparable position at the same level netted me a 50% increase on my salary. Almost everyone is on a computer that is 5+ years old, with outdated software and hardware on its last legs. This is kind of par for the course--there's a consistent investment in appearance (lunch, gym), but not a lot where it counts--supplies, investment in employee development, career growth.

--Metric-based corporate culture-- Semi-annual reviews break the company into a bell-curve of achievement with no actual impact on day-to-day life. High-performing employees are praised, but not rewarded. The same employees are penalized for over-inflated performance issues because the reporting metric requires criticism as well as critique. The review system is designed to keep everyone in their places and justify a lack of advancement across the board. The entire culture of the company focuses more on rubrics, administration, and bureaucracy than actual performance.

Bottom line, this isn't a bad place to work, but it's a bad place to grow. If you're looking to get your first years of experience, or you're looking for a place to crank out 15 years until you can retire, work here. If you're looking to grow within a company, rather than just build skills and experience for your next job, find somewhere else.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in the employees you already have. If you continue to bring in young, talented people, all you're going to do is educate them enough to get their 5 years of experience and get out the door. Stop trying to keep the employee experience in stasis and start thinking about how you can develop it in a positive direction.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Nice atmosphere, good people on the front lines

Cons – People are often promoted to their level of incompetence.

When they have a bad quarter, the upper management's answer is to layoff a bunch of people instead of working on their internal processes.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't blame the employees when the stock tanks.

Former Employee – worked at QAD

Pros – flexibility in working environment
great management support
open opportunity for career advance
free to choose the technical with in the team's project scope

Cons – sometimes the process is not well designed

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD

Pros – Good Work Environment
Take Care of their People
Feels very familial

Cons – Isn't cut throat enough to truly take on SAP
Dependent on aging technologies

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD

Pros – Competing with other software companies means they know of QAD, even if it isn't a threat. This exposure and being able to get the required experience in the industry (five years) isn't as pressured as in a bigger, more competitive company. Do you "apprenticeship" here, then leverage that to move on.

Cons – Very little opportunity to move within the company, especially if you're good at your job. Personal growth or a career is unplanned for. If you want to grow from a starting position through to management this is not the company for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Use the talent internally and trust the people you have. If you hire somene, they stay and your happy with their performance grow them. Hire people with growth potential and develop them.

Former Employee – worked at QAD

Pros – QAD provided a great working environment. The location is beautiful, with free breakfast and lunches. They appear to care about employee satisfaction and work on a system of merit where they attempt to keep good employees and get rid of poor performers. They provide management training across the organisation (even to non-managers) which has a positive impact on management style and encourages mentoring.

Cons – Because of the poor economy and their willingness to downsize when necessary, there does appear to be a lot of turnover which is sometimes refreshing but at other times depressing.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at QAD

Pros – Very flexible, challenging but not demanding, direct management was great to work for, easy to communicate with management, and I loved wearing jeans to work. Many employees who leave QAD often reapply and come back, and I can see why. There aren't very many companies offering the benefits and flexibility that QAD does.

Cons – Although management is very supportive in employee growth and learning, there are very few promotion opportunities. Most opportunities are lateral.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at QAD

Pros – Work place is casual and laid back, management macro manage over micro manage, allow you to work on your own to meet deadlines.

Cons – Lack of communication between departments. Lack of oversight and governance of standards.

Advice to Senior Management – Laid back California style is nice, but mix in some good old fasion accountibility and things will thrive. If you don't give someone something to strive for, if you don't give them a vision then they won't know what the future is.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend