Great if you just want to coast in your job - Senior Software Developer Guidance Employee Review

2.0
Nov 17, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Pretty easy work as a developer. Hours are totally reasonable. * They provided some offsite training related to one of the eCommerce platforms we built on * All-hands meetings were catered

Cons

Ultimately, if you want a career, you should look elsewhere. This isn't really a place for you if you're an engineer wanting to work on technically challenging projects for a management team that cares about your career development. The projects were pretty disorganized and I really had no idea what everyone was working on, as each engineer was siloed on the individual project/customer they were building solutions for. There was a lack of real collaboration there. The management didn't really engage with you, and frankly I don't really know what the CTO and CEO did at the company. I left after 9 months and joined an awesome startup, which put me in a steep career trajectory upward. It would have been a huge mistake had I stayed. One data point to consider: all the management at the company have been there for 7-8 years on average. Whereas the turnover for everyone else is really high. That kinda tells you how they treat people and their career growth

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5.0
Aug 13, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Difficult project with custom logic Strong developers

Cons

Many time spent on meetings

4.0
Oct 27, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As a project manager I was given a lot of leeway with how to manage the client engagements. You're given a lot of responsibility here off the bat, but the management team, particularly Lisa and Jon will help if you seek them out. The projects were varied and interesting and ultimately I added some interesting work experience to my resume that helped me land my next gig. The management team really does try to have a positive work environment and let employees know they are valued. At the end of the day, this is a great place to learn a lot about building out ecommerce apps and websites -- they are experts at this here.

Cons

This is essentially a consulting agency building ecommerce sites and apps for clients -- and clients can be demanding. If you have a thin skin and don't know how to let off steam outside the office in a constructive way, you should work somewhere else. The sales process sometimes over promises to the client what they'll get (estimations were off and to keep clients happy free hours were given away, which lowers overall profitability of a project). I think the management team has learned from past mistakes in this area. The other deficiency when I was at Guidance was lack of quality developers - hard to compete against other top-paying companies in L.A., so not sure how they can do better here. But I always felt like they were relying on 2-3 top devs to lead several projects at once.

7
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