Pariveda reviews

Now for the not so good…. There is no true value for diversity. Not just from an ethnic perspective, but also background, way of thinking, etc. Pariveda really struggles here. You will quickly hear “we are different from most companies” and it’s “the Pariveda way”. What they are really saying is that they want you at act, look, think, behave, and even breath the way they do. If you don’t, you’re an outsider and you won’t succeed. It’s EXTREMELY clicky. When you first start, you have this ery feeling that you have just joined a cult and they are sizing you up to see if you will make the cut. You’re not crazy. They are. And if you don’t act, look, think, behave or breath the way they want you to, you better believe that people will gossip under the guise of “feedback” behind your back. It’s not that you did anything wrong, you just have to learn the “Pariveda way”. Which bring me to my third point… Because people are smart (and yes they are perfectly aware of this) you will have random people CONSTANTLY giving “feedback”. Constructive feedback is great, but sometimes it is just plain gossip and negativity if they never speak directly to that person. Because they are so clicky and it’s a small company, there is A LOT of bias. Once you’ve passed initiation into the cult, bad behavior is excused, ignored or justified. Promotions, assignments, and performance reviews are heavily influenced on if people like you. I’ve seen bullying behavior minimized and not even mentioned on the performance review of the bully. The promotion system is severely flawed. You can be up for a cohort promotion, recommended by your manager for the promotion, but fail to get it based on a case presentation that, for some, has nothing to do with their 9 to 5 job. What sense does that make!? Pariveda is a company that “rewards” tenure with great pay and these artificial “manager” titles for some. In the real world, these “managers” are simply senior level individual contributors who are overpaid. As I said before, there are some great people at Pariveda. There are also some not so great people who get away with poor leadership skills due to longevity and closeness to senior leadership. Not that they would purposefully let this happen, many people are just afraid to let them know that some people have poor leadership skills, is biased, and no longer have the competencies need to truly be successful in their roles. Are you really going to risk being a cult outsider by going up against people who have worked with some of the executives from the beginning? I think not. So, they continue getting overpaid for a role they shouldn’t have in the first place. Someone once told me that the key to success at Pariveda is getting people to like you. The problem is that people are different and have biases. To base success on if a person “likes” you is fundamentally flawed with embracing diversity because people are naturally comfortable around others who are most like them. It’s OK to not “like” someone at work as long as there is respect for one another. This is a lesson this young company will soon have to embrace as they grow.

Salaries are not competitive anymore, and in VHCOL areas it's not at all for the amount of time and effort you're expected to put in at this firm. The feedback culture is very one-sided and manipulative. What once seemed like thoughtful growth opportunities now seems like they just pick at your weaknesses until you become fully dependent on their validation for your self-confidence. It's expected of you to go above and beyond your 40 billable hours and work on things for the betterment of the firm. Which I don't mind as much when I get to work on initiatives I'm passionate about, however it can get annoying when a new initiative for the office is created and it becomes an expectation of everyone to fulfill the new requirements regardless of your client obligations and whatever else you were already committed to. During the pandemic, Pariveda's smoke and mirrors disappeared and everyone got to see the firm for what it really is. A top-heavy, small business that was struggling to sell work. The company was so ill-prepared for an economic downturn that they cut salaries as soon the the pandemic got real. While it sucked, we accepted the sacrifice if it meant none our colleagues, friends even, would lose their jobs. This was especially difficult on employees in VHCOL cities as the salaries there already aren't competitive with the local market, to take a 15%-20% pay cut on top of that and tell everyone to work even harder to sell more work is criminal. Oh, and then we get an email on a Monday saying that people have been let go... after all the sacrifices we made. Transparency went out the window. For a company that loves to talk about how they only hire top talent, way to through them to the wolves as soon as times get rough. Many teams were forced to scramble to take over their ex-colleagues roles and also figure out how to explain to the client why someone they had a trusted relationship with just disappeared. Fast-forward to now, I wince every time I see an update showing the company is in the green and that they are hiring at every level because we have so much work now (to the point we are over-booked) proving that no one needed to be let go in the first place. I joined Pariveda because I was looking for a company that valued it's employees and would allow me to work on project that were meaningful to my growth instead of being thrown on anything just to keep me billable. And for a while it felt like everything they promised was true. However, the way leadership handled the pandemic really broke a lot of employees trusts and faith in the company's leadership.