A disappearing company - Test Engineer iDirect Employee Review

1.0
Feb 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

We are well-located in the suburb of DC. We are far away from I-495, I-66 and I-95, we don't have long commute.

Cons

We are disappearing, SERIOUSLY!!! We lost good engineers almost every week, while we are short of money hiring new engineers. We make below-market pay to people. Why? Because we are a telecom and hardware company, we don't compete with Internet companies on compensation. But we have BONUS for you, how about 0.1%? We are failing a project, we have a lot of bugs and missing features. You want come helping us, you will work continuously for 4 weeks in a row without 1 day break LIKE I DID. We use technologies from the 1990s. We are one of the satellite industry elites, we have government protection, we don't need ambition and innovation. We have too many 20+ yrs experience engineers, we don't need you, fresh graduates. We don't write documentation because we don't have time writing them. We have to hunt down knowledge from here and there everyday. We have too many management people. We have technical managers who plans project, we have project managers who only plan project. we recently hired product managers who also plan project. We have 6 levels of management in the engineering department, but we only have 100 people.

Explore other reviews about iDirect

5.0
Nov 19, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really kind and supportive team. Very hands-on and learned a lot.

Cons

Nothing that would keep me from recommending it

2.0
Mar 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- In the end, I liked and respected my teammates. A non-toxic, friendly, inclusive environment all around. - Sometimes we get office pizza.

Cons

- Layoffs large and small have been a yearly occurrence since 2023. The most recent layoff stripped the place to the bone. - Bad vibes and taking morale. It may improve one day, but at time of writing it feels like a dying company. - Latest product has, at time of writing, zero (0) customers. - Business outlook is truly abysmal. The real innovation in the satellite communication industry happens at SpaceX, Amazon, Eutelsat, Blue Origin, etc, not here, and it shows in the company's financials. - Development experience is AWFUL. Simple tasks like building code or running tests are painful and themselves tend to break. - Legacy code and tech debt is bad as the company hasn't really made a truly new product in over a decade.

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