Pros
- Opportunity to work with some wonderful non-profit clients who make invaluable contributions to the world and our country - Blackbaud attracts employees (in general) who are smart, positive, well-intentioned, and hard-working. I benefited greatly from the working relationships I formed there in terms of learning about working with non-profits, technical skills, and the "how-to's" of technology consulting and implementation. Many of these employees are great people who are a lot of fun to be around (which is good, because fun helps with stress relief). - Charleston is an incredibly great place to live. You can look it up.
Cons
- The work in Professional Services, Product Support, and other areas can be very stressful. - Almost never enough billable hours needed to meet project deliverables (see "promising impossible timelines" and "poor project scoping" in another reviewer's comments) - Please read what an earlier reviewer said about Blackbaud's new application architecture. The new platform essentially places the bulk of software application logic in the SQL Server database instead of a true application logic layer. Multi-tiered application architecture became the standard many years ago. - In Professional Services, the compensation bonus "plans" are just sad. They really are. An earlier reviewer nailed it: "The problem is that the company constantly changes the bonus plans seemingly making them good, then bad, then good, then bad." I worked there for 2 1/2 years and we went through at least 5 different bonus plan configurations - a bit of a shell game, and it's a real problem for employee morale. - Yearly company re-organizations, whether they're needed or not (and not even an attempt by management to provide a rationale). - Not much of a surprise, but employee turnover in Professional Services and Support is 20% or higher. - All of the above highlights a management culture which emphasizes quarterly financial performance - and very generous management compensation incentives - first and foremost above everything else. I know it's a public company and all, but management could and should improve some of the above areas even as they're getting really well paid.
