Sentinel Technologies Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Sentinel Technologies as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – This company is an expert at running a bare-bones operation, they get you what you need to do your job, teach you the basics, then give you the ball and let you run with it. How far you take it depends entirely on YOU, and I think it's a spectacular learning environment, considering I was completely wet behind the ears my first day on the job. It's led to bigger and brighter things for me, but I would never turn down a chance to talk shop with anyone from Sentinel, or would I ever decline a discussion concerning a possible return there, they're good people, and upper management is good about making sure everyone is a good fit for whichever team they're working with.

Cons – Some people might find their managerial style a little too easygoing, and want their hand held when it comes to training and opportunities, in which case, I say to you, this is probably not the place, or even the industry for you.

Also, contract positions make it pretty tough when it comes to upward mobility, but it's not impossible, and it's a common way of doing business in the IT industry at large.

Advice to Senior Management – I really like the approach in hiring, where a certain attitude toward work and work ethic is expected of a potential employee, but I would say that there were a few situations where I wished there was a more dependable support structure in place when I was in the field. But over all, I loved my time there.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – involved in a wide range of techonolgies, so the focus can be quite broad. exposes you to many architecture areas

Cons – the scope of employment here is that is it a private company of a bunch of guys doing the job.

Advice to Senior Management – no comment

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Sentinel Technologies

Pros – laid back work environment and easy to take time off when needed

Cons – Laid back work environment carries over into a laid back attitude about taking care of their employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Taking care of the people working in the field is more important than taking care of upper management. So you could start with downsizing the company cars for management from large SUV's and get rid of the management retreat and put that money into the regular employees as they are the ones making you money.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Sentinel Technologies full-time

Pros – Base salary PLUS overtime, Great work life balance!!!! Great Project Management.

Cons – Poor technical infrastructure and tooling (Sub par laptop, Subpar ticketing system, Subpar time entry)

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

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

Pros – Sentinel is a large Cisco Gold partner that receives a lot of attention from Cisco, so getting aid from Cisco's SAs and sales staff on new issues and new products is very easy to do and they are very eager to help.

Sentinel has an extremely large base of certified technicians who have been in the industry a very long time and understand it - both from a technical perspective and from a real-world customer perspective... as a result, there is a very large knowledge pool to draw from as an employee when designing or implementing solutions. All of the Sentinel employees that I've dealt with have been EXTREMELY generous and kind when helping me with information that I haven't had previous experience with - including going so far as to start a Webex meeting with me to help guide me through processes or technologies that I'm not familiar with to provide me with a more solid understanding.

Upper management has been in this industry a very long time - I find it exciting that the original founders of the company are all still around after more than 30 years and all understand what it takes to be successful.

In contrast to past IT/consulting jobs that I've held, I've found that Sentinel's customers tend to be much more happy and satisfied after the completion of a project than what I previously thought was "normal." Sometimes quoting and winning deals is more challenging from this respect, since Sentinel builds time in to quotes to take in to account customer satisfaction via the appropriate training and face time with customers during and after the implementation of a project. This is in stark contrast to my previous experiences in quoting, where razor-thin "in and out" timelines were quoted for customer projects just to win a deal. This type of predatory quoting doesn't happen at Sentinel, and as a result, the engineers and the customers are both happier in the end.

Work/life balance is also better at Sentinel than at any company I've previously worked for, and benefits are excellent even for new employees.

Cons – I've been here for a year and haven't found any yet. I find the negative reviews here somewhat questionable, as I have never had problems getting helpful information from management or more experienced engineers and architects when I've found myself in over my head on a project or otherwise in a bind.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work. Having so many long-term employees and happy customers means that you must be doing something right!

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

Former Employee – worked at Sentinel Technologies

Pros – Very challenging projects but opportunity to learn is priceless.

Cons – Little time to adjust, little to no training.

Advice to Senior Management – Great place to work and meet talents.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Sentinel Technologies

Pros – As a Cisco gold partner in Chicago they have the attention of Cisco sales orginazation. As a result, many opportunities get a Cisco approval and assistance. This partnership opens doors and creates additional partnerships.

Cons – Management is poor at dealing with problems and has a blame response many times as a result. I felt that management was often just covering their butts. Feedback on performance was sloppy and inconsistent. When reviewing projects inconsistencies and misinformation made learning a new assignment more difficult then needed. A general atmosphere of not confronting problems directly resulted in employee moral problems.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't hire and not support. Don't leave employees who want to do a good job "twisting in the wind" guessing what to do to improve.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend