On the surface, TechSmith looks like a great company. They advertise an open, collaborative, and innovative environment where you can be excited to come into work every day. They say that they put their people and customers first providing the highest quality support in the industry. For many years that was true. However, sadly the culture and focus has been rapidly changing over the past 8 months and a lot of very talented people are leaving. It is now an organization where bottom line is number one, period.
The executive and senior leadership team talks a great game and you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement believing every word when they give updates in companywide forums. However, when you meet with them one on one, or talk to the people who are working directly on the projects it is another story. There is an open-door policy and you are encouraged to make suggestions and foster healthy conflict. However, if your thinking is too far from their vision you will at best be ignored at worst be belittled and subjected to further scrutiny. People who were once very passionate, vocal and innovative have started shutting down. It’s a complicated game that you can’t win. If you keep head down and focus on your job you are punished for not being an engaging and innovative team player. If you engage in a lot of meetings and discussion you are punished for not producing numbers.
Very clear favoritism is given to good self-promoters. Individuals who spend a lot of time on experimental projects, grossly inflate their success and then spend more time discussing and promoting the project than actually working on it are favored over those who try to balance current responsibilities and dabble in experimental projects. Collaboration between teams and departments has been weak for years which makes it very easy to point fingers and lay blame elsewhere when a product or project doesn’t perform.
A great example of the Jekyll and Hyde personality is the new CEO. While there is no doubt she is intelligent and experienced in many areas her communication skills are off-putting. When speaking in large groups she tries too hard to be likable and comes off as almost ditzy. In smaller groups and one on one she is often extremely narrow focused demanding and aggressive.
The culture is reminiscent of a small town high school. For the most part everyone knows everyone and seems to get along well. However, gossip and slander runs rampant and is often taken as truth without verification. The circle of trust is growing smaller and smaller every day and people you thought were allies will stab you in the back if given the chance to make them look better. Casual hook ups and relationships among employees are common and not discouraged unless they are direct reports. This can make it very uncomfortable for coworkers once the relationship fizzles out. Rumors are that there have been harassment dismissals and restraining orders in the past few years but of course none of that can be confirmed. As a whole, I think there are a lot of good people but the environment and situations they have been put in make them want to fend for themselves instead of work together.
You will be required to learn and work with several different systems to do your job (20+) with very little formal training. Most of which are antiquated, underused or so customized it is difficult for the manufactures to support. The front-line staff is often asked “You are a tech company; how can you not provide X information or service?” It is quite embarrassing. Several system reviews to update and consolidate systems have occurred during my time but rarely result in anything. Recently there was an outside consultant in for several days to map the systems and I believe that project is underway but I imagine it will be years before anything changes.
Great award winning products but their future is questionable. Snagit is a fantastic product but will likely become obsolete very soon as free products are improving and organizations are tightening their budgets. Relay has hemorrhaged money from the company for years. At one point it was going to be killed but now it is being revitalized. I have hopes for it but it is a saturated and fast moving market and our products have been behind from the start. Coach’s Eye was high performing in its market but could not generating revenue. Morae is dying a slow death. The only hope is in Camtasia and moving to SaaS. However, TechSmith has and will likely continue to struggle to support SaaS.
