CAI reviews

This is a dinosaur company that only serves other dinosaur companies and/or fossils. Any highly positive reviews are either from an earlier point in the companies time or were put there by managers that were told to do so more recently. Over the 4 years I was at this company I've seen nothing but downside. Our glassdoor rating has plummeted, more and more employees are leaving to seek better opportunities, and more work is being outsourced. You cannot build a career here, there is no growth ladder, no way to visualize yourself within the next 2, 4, or 5 years if you decide to stay. Plus because we do not follow any other basic industry practices or use modern technologies. You will be laughed at in other interviews when you describe your experience. There is absolutely no innovation within corporate, and other locations feel like separate companies instead of following after corporates examples. Absolutely no communication on company vision or between teams, employees are left in the dark. The organization is cheap, refuses to invest in its own infrastructure for the products it is desperately trying to sell. Products and services are outdated, no research is being done on what other competing companies are offering. The industry has far outpaced what the company thinks the industry needs. Underpaid. You will be salaried at about 5k to 10k off of industry median rates. Plus no 401k match. Managers lie to the CEO on how a product is performing just so they don't get the blame. There are also a few products that have only cost the company money for years, move on and INNOVATE. Don't just create a product you think the world needs. Solve a problem that exists within the industry. There also is this thought process that upper-level employees think. It's along the lines that we are best at what we do because we are "Computer Aid" and we are a "World Leader". We are far from a world leader, we are a drop in the bucket. Just an old IT company that does not know what it wants to be and refuses to change its thinking. A great example of this is the website design. In 2016 the website looked like it was from 1993 and wasn't updated until 2017. How can you expect to sell products and services to modern companies without even having a modern looking website? Honestly, I see no growth in this company over the next 2, 4, or even 8, years. If you still work there, start looking elsewhere. There are way better opportunities, trust me. If you are a prospective candidate pass on this and move on. All of this piling on top of each other makes your work mundane and meaningless.

At Corporate, the environment is toxic. The CEO considers himself a visionary, but he's a bully who doesn't like to hear "no" and will dress down employees in meetings. This fosters a culture in which no one wants to report any bad news. He also meddles in the development process, causing delays in completing work, which leads to more bad news he doesn't want to hear and no one is willing to address. The corporate culture also includes a reluctance to address mistakes or subpar performance or inappropriate behavior, because it's treated as a confrontation, rather than a rational, sober discussion to correct and improve a situation. One employee, a protege of the CEO, exhibited serious anger issues over a period of years, but was never dealt with, till he barged into a meeting and threatened the CEO with physical violence and then was fired. In less serious or harmful cases, employees' work needs improvement, but managers are reluctant to bring it up. Instead, they scratch their heads about the delays in completing work. Or in the case of the development group, the exec in charge can't deal with team leaders who are insubordinate, when they refuse to do what he directs the group to do. And this all fosters a culture of blame, to find a scapegoat, rather than a solution, when an issue comes up. As far as the product goes, it's a project management methodology. It's not a unique idea, and it's a little outmoded. It's aimed at development organizations that follow a waterfall process. Customers take the business management methodology, but many have dropped the software that goes with it, since it's based on old technology, and the product owner is resistant to change. A project management application is so poor that the salespeople won't sell it, and a dashboard that goes with it has been mired in development for years, but because of the internal management problems, it's still years away from release, and once the CEO retires, it's very possible that these applications will be discontinued by his successor. Not much room for advancement, either. The company is replacing veteran employees with college interns, unloading salary and experience along with it. And some work is being sent overseas, wherever the labor costs are cheapest. On the other hand, the teams embedded with customers are probably a better bet for anyone looking for a job as a software engineer. I would not recommend this to someone looking for a job, unless it were someone right out of school and he needed something to establish some employment history and get a little experience.