Eze Software Reviews

Pros

Lots of talented coworkers, who will help you push your limits and learn new technology. Great benefits.

Cons

Merger with SS&C looked to be spoiling the company culture. Clients are extremely demanding and often unreasonable.

Pros

Highly variable, depending upon who your manager is and what team you work for. For me, I was on two smaller, specialized teams, where I had AMAZING, brilliant direct managers who let me work remote whenever I wanted, and I had a relatively light workload. Great co-workers in the Chicago office as well. A lot of really talented, smart people there. You also learn a lot about the industry.

Cons

If you're reading this as a college senior or a recent college graduate applying to an "associate solutions/engagement analyst/engineer" or similar position at SS&C Eze, tread carefully. When I came on, I did not know what the position really was, and this obfuscation was purposeful. Bottom line: the job is IT phone support, and it may make you question your self-worth. It's miserable work, and the clients treat you like a sub-human. If you're looking for fulfilling work, this is NOT that. Personally, I moved around to a different group and got off the phones (thank god), but many of my co-workers who have senior or principal titles with 10+ years of experience were still answering the phone and getting yelled at by clients. Working at Eze can be a trap. If you work in solutions/engagement, you will get pigeonholed to a very specific type of role, and it will be very difficult to pivot to other industries because of the lack of transferrable skills you gain. You spend most of your time working on one specific product, using a suite of internally built tools. You might learn SQL though. While I was there, I tried to leave, but the only offers I received were essentially the same job in the same industry. Many of my colleagues who tried to leave have ended up doing either the same job at one of the competitors (e.g., Enfusion, Bloomberg, Interactive Brokers) or doing another type of tech support, "implementation," (i.e., installing software and showing clients how to use it) at Seismic. Of course, this isn't the case 100% of the time, but my point is: if you're going to work at Eze, you should have many irons in the fire. You should be prepared to parlay the industry knowledge you will gain—capital markets, hedge funds, electronic trading—into something specialized, which is very difficult to do unless you have other experience, you know someone who can get your foot in the door elsewhere, or you go to graduate school. The substance of your job is phone support and putting out fires, so you'll need some serious "spin" to make your resume sound like it's anything but that. But, it's not impossible. A few of my colleagues got out by getting a PMP and getting a job as a project manager or by going to graduate school. The latter is how I got out. Also, ever since the company was bought by SS&C, the belt has been tightened on every single team. Many of my colleagues were offered comp days instead of raises because the budgets were so tight. Even if you're a great performer, you likely won't even get a raise that matches inflation. The raise structure is highly rigid and the only determining factor is years in your position. By the time I left, the soul of the company—what little there may have been—had been sucked out of it. When I joined, to boost morale, the MD would sometimes wheel in cases of beer around 2:30-3:00pm on Fridays and it felt like there was community. A few years later, people just wanted to be out as soon as possible. Finally, one of the company's strengths, the smart, talented people they hire, is also one of its greatest weaknesses. Eze hires really smart people from top schools—Notre Dame, Duke, Michigan, Northwestern just to name a few—who quickly realize that it's an awful place to work and leave right away. What you end up with is an attrition rate north of 20%. So you're constantly training people, whether it's a replacement in your home office (if there's room in the budget to even replace someone who leaves) or someone in India.

Pros

Many areas to work within and develop a broad range of skills.

Cons

Work culture was horrendous. Coming into the office early morning and leaving late evening. Many hours worked over the weekend. Pay was equally horrendous. Zero salary bumps over 2 years. Managers overly zealous and demanding. Unrealistic expectations. Pretty sure I developed PTSD from this company. Greener pastures are out there.

Pros

Free food, drinks, bagels on Wednesday, beer on Friday. Your immediate coworkers are, in general, young, driven, fun people to work with. The majority of direct managers are good people as well (with notable exceptions). If you're willing to work hard, you'll learn a lot of skills that transfer well across any client service or financial role in the future.

Cons

The company was going downhill for the past few years. When I started, we had an amazing culture on our team, people worked hard and long hours, but rarely were there complaints about workload. Then, when the company decided to change the entire service model, everything went downhill. Headcount was reduced while responsibilities rose. India was spun up, only to take on roughly 15-20% of the workload with 50% of the headcount. Raises dropped, even when you received identical ratings in End of Year reviews (for example, I received the same rating throughout my tenure, my last three raises were 3%, 2%, and 0.5%). If you want to be promoted, it's not enough to efficiently and effectively do your job. You're expected to go above and beyond, to work long hours, to come up with solutions to problems managers might not even have identified (all while consistently working through your queue of work). In fact, if you don't work long hours you're considered by many in upper management to be a slacker and get no respect. People who have been with the company 8+ years and are now in upper management seem to think that the only way to be effective is to work 12 hour days, and many openly choose their favorites. The best talent began getting fed up and moving on a few years ago, and it's telling that something like 30-40 of them all moved to the same company (Seismic). Even if you can get past all of the above, the worst part was the blatant dishonesty. At one point, the company held seminars for the younger folks, patronizingly telling us about how well the compensation structure was. This while every one of us could see how fast attrition was happening, and since many of the people leaving were our friends, it was easy to see how much more money people were getting when they moved on to similar roles (again for reference, I moved on to a new company in almost exactly the same role, but I have far fewer responsibilities/tasks and I'm making roughly 33% more). If you're a college student looking to gain some relevant skills, learn how to talk to volatile personalities in the financial industries, and then move on to a much more lucrative role in a couple of years, this is the place for you. Otherwise steer clear.

Pros

The Client Service teams at SSC Eze are great jobs to start your career. You will work in high pressure situations, learn SQL, ETL, tech and soft skills, and build a solid skill set that will eventually take you to a better company with better pay. The managers and ADs of these teams are also great. They do care about your growth and work-life balance.

Cons

Eze (and SSC) have implemented a rigid promotion and raise structure. You have no hope of early promotions or raises and will follow a 2 year cycle regardless of performance. Also, because Eze has struggled financially for several years, raises have been dismal. In 2019, my last year at the company, I received a 1% raise, despite meeting "Exceeds Expectations" on my review. I know several of my colleagues received 0.5% increase. This doesn't even approach Cost of Living increases in Boston. In desperation, Eze has begun to promise SSC options to compensate for lack of raises, but the date and value of these options has been consistently pushed back. Simply put, Eze does not pay its employees for their worth. When I left, my base salary increased 40%. Eze has begun to see significant turnover because employees with a versatile and useful skillsets have no trouble finding higher paying jobs in a thriving market, which leaves more work for the employees that remain. This is a model that cannot survive.