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    Open Systems International Reviews

    Updated January 26, 2017
    58 reviews

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    Full-time Part-time
    3.6
    Star Star Star Star Star
    Rating Trends Rating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Open Systems International President Bahman Hoveida
    Bahman Hoveida
    33 Ratings

    58 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • Great work culture and work environment and benefits (in 10 reviews)

    • Most of the employees are pretty great people to work with- very smart, motivated, etc (in 3 reviews)

    Cons

    • Many more are fired simply because somebody in upper management decided he doesn't like them anymore (in 7 reviews)

    • They offer limited options to work from home but sometimes it is approved (in 4 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Overall great intern experience"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Software Developer Intern in Medina, MN
      Former Employee - Software Developer Intern in Medina, MN
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Open Systems International (Less than a year)

      Pros

      -Inters given own project to work on for the summer.

      -Mentor/managers were helpful and nice

      -Good pay

      -Fund work events

      Cons

      -Mandatory 1 hour lunch break

      -My bigest con is not the companies fault really. I didn't like the location because it required a lengthy commute.

      Other than that, no issues really.

      Advice to Management

      Keep on doing what your doing. Provided an interesting project and gave a lot of freedom on how to complete it. I felt I always could get help if needed but never felt them breathing down my back.

    2. Helpful (18)

      "Worst. Company. Ever."

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Software Engineer II in Plymouth, MN
      Former Employee - Software Engineer II in Plymouth, MN
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      Pros

      They hire a ton of new grads, which I was, so we all partied together and had a good time outside of work.

      Cons

      Where to start?

      The pay is HORRIBLE, especially for what you have to put up with

      A promotion is only something they give out if you are willing to do more work for the same pay, congratulations.

      People are constantly coming and going through the company. Many are straight up fired for being just terrible at their job. Many more are fired simply because somebody in upper management decided he doesn't like them anymore.

      Work from home? Forget it.

      Flex time? You are welcome to come in anytime before 8am and leave anytime after 5pm.

      A gentleman I worked with was taking evening classes trying to earn a graduate degree. Because of traffic and the location of the school from the office this gentleman needed to leave work at 4:30 two days a week for one semester. He asked his manager if it would be OK for him to come in early those days so that he may leave early. The answer he got was NO. Not only that, but he was also told that OSI's PTO policy states that you can only take PTO in 1 hour increments, so this poor gentleman had to take at least 2 hours of PTO each week because he needed to leave at 4:30.

      Upper management will walk around to make sure you are in your desk between the hours of 8-5.

      One day at 4:50pm some of the managers were running around the office telling select people there was an emergency meeting. Only about 20% of the company was "invited" to the meeting. While the meeting was going on, the same managers were new running around unplugging the network cables from those employee's PC's. The "emergency meeting" that happened during the last 10 minutes of the week was to inform them that they were no longer employees. Bahman, the CEO, was actually supposed to be the bearer of bad news. He chickened out and had the HR lady do it for him instead. He left the office before the meeting was over. The following week there was a company meeting held to give the current employees an explanation of what was going on. During that meeting we were all informed that there was going to be another round of layoffs in two weeks so we should all be on our best behavior and prove yourself. Sure enough, two weeks later, they let go another 10-20% of the company. This time, instead of holding an emergency meeting at the end of the day on Friday, they waited until everyone went home Friday evening, and around 6:30pm they started calling employees at their home to inform them they no longer work for the company and that a time had been scheduled the following week for them to come and pick up their severance.

      I believe this has changed since I was there, but they only did payroll once a month. Yep, you read that right, one paycheck a month. Oh, and when you start, you didn't get your first paycheck until you've completed 30 days of employment, so, depending on where in the month you started, you could go 2 months before you see that first check....and my first one came late. I had to call HR and bring it to their attention that after approximately 6 weeks of employment I hadn't received any money.

      When I was hired I was negotiating a higher salary. I was told by HR that I would receive a review after 6 months and as long as things were going well, I would be brought up to a more competitive salary. I never received that 6 month review. In fact, my annual review came 6 months late. I received a raise of next to nothing, but the best part is this: To justify my next to nothing raise, the VP pulled out a sheet of paper that had itemized all of the financials that pertain to me. Things like my salary and a list of taxes the company is required to pay to have my as an employee, i.e., social security tax. He totaled this all up and said: This is the real amount we pay for you, so we feel like your compensation is in line with the market.

      Not long before I moved on, I was sitting at my desk updating my resume to send off to a job application. Some lady suspected I was not working on work stuff so she told her manager on me (yes, a grown adult tattled on my). Even better, her manager (who is now one of the VPs), snuck around the cubicles and jumped out from behind in hopes to catch me! I actually started laughing, I thought it was joke....but it wasn't....he was pissed.

      I could ramble on with a dozen horror stories like this, but I'll stop there.

      To sum up, working at OSI was so bad that I had actually contemplated leaving the software development field all together, but thankfully OSI is a one of a kind crappy place and not at all representative of any other company anywhere.

      Advice to Management

      My advise to management is to please, please stay at OSI. We don't need you infesting all the other great software companies around the Twin Cities area.

      3. Join the Open Systems International team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. Helpful (6)

      "Senior Engineer"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Medina, MN
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Medina, MN
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook

      I have been working at Open Systems International full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      I get away with doing absolutely nothing all day while I walk around chatting up everyone at their cubicles. Then I just blame the newer employees for stuff not getting done on time. A real paradise if you know who to manipulate people.

      Cons

      Very few promotions to senior positions from within. This place is mostly a revolving door of college graduates. Don't have to vest them, don't need life insurance just yet; etc.

      Advice to Management

      Please stop acting like you're Google, Microsoft, Oracle, or any other Fortune 500 company. You're not that big and you never will be.

    4. "Great place to work"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Business Operations Intern in Maple Grove, MN
      Former Employee - Business Operations Intern in Maple Grove, MN
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Open Systems International (Less than a year)

      Pros

      -Great people
      - Productive Management
      - Good salaries and benefits

      Cons

      - Can't think of any worth sharing!

    5. "Good, but not perfect company"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Medina, MN
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Medina, MN
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Open Systems International full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      Friendly culture
      Good hours (unless you have a position that travels a lot)
      Opportunities for quick/early advancement (not so much later on)
      Good chance to get hands-on experience
      Great opportunity for recent college grads

      Cons

      Salary is less than market average
      There isn't always a clear vision for the future
      Promotions can appear to be random
      Job titles have little meaning
      Above average turnover rate

    6. Helpful (4)

      "Good for junior advancement"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Engineer in Minneapolis, MN
      Former Employee - Engineer in Minneapolis, MN
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at Open Systems International full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      Diverse Assignments, a growing industry demand, profitable in the short run.

      Cons

      Very small team, not a lot of advancement. There's not much by way of change in upper leadership, and the founder of the company is still the CEO. It's clear that they have been trying to sell the company for a number of years, and each attempt seems to have fallen through. The salaries tend to be much below the industry average, and the location within the metro is very far away (Which can be rough in bad construction and in winter).

      Advice to Management

      Increase the base salary of paid technical staff

    7. Helpful (7)

      "Avoid “Engineering” in Government & Field Automation Services Departments"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Project Engineer in Medina, MN
      Former Employee - Project Engineer in Medina, MN
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at Open Systems International full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Relaxed work environment, nice office, items in my con list improved over the years but still have a ways to go. OSI’s business strategy in the government group ensures a continual flow of business – they won’t sell OSI software to a competitor so it forces the government to use OSI for maintenance and development services. Complaints in my review are specific to the government and field services departments and I think there are positions elsewhere in the company that would provide a better experience.

      Cons

      Ridiculously slow moving projects, which is is a mixed blame of difficult customers and OSI management. Management tends to turns trivial tasks into behemoth problems, crippling productivity with excessive approvals, reviews, and meetings. Need an extra $5 cable on your project? Expect about 2-3 hours of work filling our paperwork and 2 weeks for all of the necessary approvals to get through to get the cable ordered.

      There is little transferable knowledge gained, unless you career aspirations are to work at an electrical utility that uses OSI’s software. Most of your time will be spent learning the intricacies of OSI software, developing HMIs in the most painstakingly-slow and buggy software, and tediously going through lists of 1000’s of data points adjusting names to customer ever-changing preferences. Daily I would take a step back and look at what I’m doing and think, ‘this is what I spent 4 years getting an engineering degree for?’

      An accumulation of small things gave me a bad vibe about the company. Projects often get down to the contract T&C’s on how to get out of work. I usually felt like we were ripping off the customer, the actual delivered product to cost ratio on a lot of projects was outrageous. OSI really advertised ‘flex time hours’ when I was hired, yet they had the strictest policy of hours I’ve worked at. OSI hires almost all new grads, yet they built their new office 30 miles from the city. Travel policy is a nightmare, expect to get nickel and dimed on expenses. To save $100 on a flight, travel will book you a midday Sunday flight with a 4 hour layover. OSI gave me a 5-day window to accept their job offer which seemed excessively short for a new grad when I had interviews spread out over a month period.

      Advice to Management

      Hire managers that have experience in the field they are managing. Implement a per diem travel policy.

    8. Helpful (2)

      "Great place to start"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Minneapolis, MN
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Minneapolis, MN
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      Pros

      Small company environment that allows entry level employees great experience.
      Successful competitive products, profitable and stable company.
      Great work culture and work environment and benefits.

      Cons

      Pay is well below average
      Not much careers growth as the company is very conservative not looking to grow in any significant way. Incentives are non existent for those who are capable of taking the company in new innovative directions. Career growth opportunity is fantastic for entry level only but not much career opportunity beyond that. One size fits all style to management.

      Advice to Management

      Keep the great culture. Find ways to better enable and create incentives for those who can generate new opportunities that benefit the company in significant ways.

    9. Helpful (1)

      "Better now"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Project Engineering/Management in Medina, MN
      Current Employee - Project Engineering/Management in Medina, MN
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Open Systems International full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      OSI has become a better place to work. The raises and bonuses are better. The organization is getting better - especially project engineering and project management. Communications is better and management cares about its employees.

      Cons

      Nobody is perfect. The growth is great but can be tiring. Keep hiring more staff.

      Advice to Management

      Learn from what employees have to say. We care and want to suceed with OSI.

    10. Helpful (4)

      "great atmosphere to work in"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Project Engineer in Medina, MN
      Current Employee - Project Engineer in Medina, MN
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      I have been working at Open Systems International full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      great benefits, awesome atmosphere, very accomodation. yearly raises and bonuses, opportunities for advancement as an engineer. lots of paid time off, location and building are awesome

      Cons

      lowish starting salary, lots of training needed, otherwise there is not much to dislike about this job

      Advice to Management

      none as of yet. Most of the management have held engineering positions at some point or another so they are very easy to communicate with and relate to as a fellow engineer

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