Great stepping stone for a new dev - Recensione dipendente - Software Engineer presso Parthenon Software Group

The number one benefit of working here is the level of support available. If a client is being difficult or unreasonable, management has you covered. If you're stuck on tough technical or design problems, you're surrounded by extremely knowledgable people who are more than willing to help. Beyond that, management actually cares about you, wants you to succeed and is more than willing to work around your schedule if you have external matters arise that pull you away from work. Regarding the work itself, it's what you would expect working for a custom software shop. A lot of the work is maintaining and expanding legacy software that wasn't particularly well designed in the first place. Less common would be a "staff augmentation" where you're directly reporting to the client. As others have said, there are good projects, and there are bad projects; But since you work for Parthenon you'll never find yourself working weekends or holidays no matter how unreasonable the client's deadlines are. Full health coverage with employee premiums covered is excellent, and pay is above average for the type of work.

You really need to be confident in yourself to thrive here. There's not a lot of opportunities for management to provide feedback, good or bad, so you may find yourself uncertain about your standing performance-wise. Even this is easily overcome as management is very available to speak to and always forthcoming if you ask how you're doing. Also, you won't find yourself in a project lead role due to the nature of the work, but you can still get the experience of being a lead developer depending on the project you're placed on.

Some projects are well managed, productive, fun to work on, even exciting. It's great when you're on such a project. If you're on a mediocre project, it won't last forever, and then you'll be on to something probably better. The CEO is a technical wizard with a good attitude and he's readily accessible and happy to advise. Project managers are generally great to work for. Developers are expected to be quickly adaptable to new projects and this tends to keep out anyone who's slow or unproductive. Working on an such a variety of projects with varied management styles is good experience, and helps you become a more well-rounded developer who is more confident about taking on new things. You get some of the experience of job hopping, without actually job hopping. Benefits: Medical insurance is paid for, though you have to pay the premium for your dependents. Dental & vision. 401k plan with a decent match, but it's run through a high cost insurance company. Free transit pass. Free lunch on Fridays. Many employees work remotely, though they're expected to be available to come into the office on occasion. Location in St. Johns is unique and could be more convenient for certain people. Annual reviews have been instated recently, which helps keep discussions about progress, pay, etc. on track and in people's minds.

Some projects have no project manager and you're left to the whims of the client, which can sometimes be a bit miserable. Lack of direction, poor timeline management, etc. Projects are really hit or miss, so when a good one ends, it's a bit sad. The nature of hopping from project to project means that pushing to adopt better practices, etc. feels somewhat wasted, or not worth the effort, as you'll just be changing projects again in a while anyway. This can lead to accepting lower standards than you would prefer. Personal investment in a project is short lived. Company culture feels a little lacking, given that all of the developers are broken up between many different projects that have nothing to do with each other, and there are few non-developer employees to grease the social gears.