SirsiDynix Reviews

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The facility is great: clean, lots of light, open floor plan, great furniture, PLUSH common area, subsidized cafeteria, free soda, free coffee/espresso/cappuccino (my favorite).

Many efforts have been made to create a positive culture and employees are definitely engaged. CFO encourages a “Work Hard, Play Hard” environment. Managers have made it a point to recognize hard work!

Company is flexible with works schedules, which is a plus if you need to work from home due to a sick family member or other such issues.

Cons – The Company has definitely gone through some growing pains in creating its Technology Centre.

The transition to an HSA has been difficult for some employees.

Unfortunately, there are some staff hygiene issues to be dealt with – although, I know that this is common among software companies… 

Advice to Senior Management – Keep moving in the direction of employee recognition. Remain open to receiving employee feedback. Also, continue to keep employee’s apprised of the Company’s goals and initiatives.

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

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – So much to learn!
Realizes they are behind and are quickly trying to catch up by utilizing better technology.
Challenges employees to do their bes and they reward hard-working employees that strive to do their best.
Lots of talented engineers to learn from.
Management is great and stays out of the way of the engineers.
The engineers (test and development) with the tech writers form autonomous teams that work with product management.

An amazing building with a sweet break room.
Professional (not cheap and flimsy) pool, foosball (Tornado) and ping pong (Killerspin) tables. XBOX, super fancy espresso machine (makes a mean hot chocolate!)
Subsidized cafeteria, Einstein Bagel Fridays (bagels for everyone!), and outstanding company parties.

Cons – A little bit on the low side for salary.
They have a really bizarre nerf policy: must wear company-issued safety glasses and you can only have nerf fights in the break room or an office... Pretty much eliminates spontaneous wars!

Advice to Senior Management – Avoid last-minute changes. Prepare and give concrete expectations for the many conferences and presentations that happen throughout the year to avoid last-minute panic and extra work.

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

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – SirsiDynix has created an agile software development environment that promotes professionalism and ingenuity through utilizing Scrum and Kanban. The open communication policy and team structure encourages innovation at all levels. The company has formalized a 2-day innovation period after each Sprint for self-organized teams to explore new technologies, code enhancements, or new product lines.
The direct contact between employees and management eliminates barriers, fosters communication, and establishes a common goal direction. The executive team encourages career growth and advancement.
The rewards and benefits of working for SirsiDynix have provided on opportunity to develop my skills, gain management experience, and obtain a competitive salary with an aggressive bonus structure. The long-term employment of so many current employees, in excess of 15 years, shows the longevity of opportunity available.

Cons – The company believes in the concept of personal responsibility and accomplishment. For those, who have become reliant on tenure and friendship to sustain employment, the goal/accomplishment driven environment is a harsh reality.

Advice to Senior Management – The company needs to continue to innovate, be open to change, and promote accomplishment through compensation.

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

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

Pros – Fun, team oriented, work at your own pace.

Cons – Their software has major flaws. Have a hard time keeping Customer Support staffed ending up in a workload that is often times unbearable.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire more people,

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix

Pros – Management has gotten better at communicating company directives to employees. The new building they moved into is quite amazing with a workout area to use on your lunch break.

Cons – Some company departments do not receive as much recognition as others...which is fine if you're in a department where you're recognized for your efforts...but isn't so nice if you see others being compensated and you aren't. And if you travel for the company, you are only reimbursed based on receipts rather than a per diem rate. Receipts are more constraining which adds stress to a business trip.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat each department more fairly in terms of compensation. Bring back the per diem rate for those that travel for the company...consider it as compensation to the employee for traveling for the business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix

Pros – SirsiDynix has a friendly atmosphere where most of the employees are happy to be there earning a paycheck. SirsiDynix for the most part puts employee's quality of life first and does well with moving personnel around to fit customer's needs.

Cons – There is a sharp learning curve at SirsiDynix after they laid off just about all of their senior personnel. Only a few people are left at SirsiDynix who really know the software and can fully support it. The turnover at SirsiDynix is also very high - there are new employees at the support level nearly every quarter. Supporting customers is left up to a developing solutions database that only helps for about 50% of the cases that come in. SirsiDynix is also a place to work if you're comfortable with sitting at a desk and phone for your career and not advance upwards. The selections for promotions are purely based off metrics of case closures and customer satisfaction and not education and experience. Essentially, if you have a degree, in about a year you can look forward to making the same amount of money as someone who is right out of high school and with no higher education.

Advice to Senior Management – Put some thought into the promotions process and offer a higher incentive to succeed. Review employee history and experience in their resume to offer a more reasonable promotion incentive before people start leaving the company!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix

Pros – Moving to a new building soon.
Management is extremely open to hearing ideas from even the associates.
Management provide time to learn new technologies and do side projects.
Job offers you a good work-life balance.

Cons – Layoffs were sporadic and often during the last two years. (Although they appear to be better now).
Vista (VC owners) had their hands too tight in the past. This also appears to be somewhat better now. Raises and performance reviews can be postponed for long periods of time.

This is both a con and a pro: lots of the extensive knowledge of one of the main projects is gone. This makes it difficult at times and also gives you an opportunity to become that knowledge and advance.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate better to your employees when your performance reviews/raises will happen. Spend time considering ILS upgrades for the next 10-20 years.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SirsiDynix

Pros – Great office atmosphere working with lots of very smart people on the front lines.

Cons – Management always asked for employee opinions, but never really listened. Support was seriously overworked.

Advice to Senior Management – Take care of your people and they will take care of you.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SirsiDynix full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – This is a friendly place to work.

Cons – Slow to move forward on new ideas

Advice to Senior Management – Listen more

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SirsiDynix

Pros – The company has a large and fairly steady customer base. Unfortunately there's less and less money for library information systems each year.

Cons – The company has been bought and sold so many times, it's not a true company anymore. Its only goal is to be sold to someone else.

Advice to Senior Management – SirsiDynix must innovate. Unfortunately as long as the company is in sell-itself mode, this is not possible in any meaningful way.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend