Pros
Great work life balance, nice colleagues whom I enjoy collaborating with. I don't feel it is slave driver culture which I have seen in previous jobs. Compensation is on par with market, there is no espp but we do get some equity with hiring package. Love that we have holiday shut down, thirsty thursdays, free sodas /snacks, subsidized membership to the PJCC Gym. I know some feel we need more perks however I believe Guidewire is generous, more so than my prior employers.
Cons
Poor people managers, this could be due to lack of development programs for first time managers. Need better processes and systems, may be partly due to inexperienced managers again. Management has been penny wise and pound foolish until now, but i think they turned the corner and realize we need some investments. The so-called great culture depends on which organization you are in. HR does not report into the CEO which is quite strange. CEO is young, not very experienced luckily things are going well. I do wonder what happens if we hit a snag in future and whether he has the know how to manuever us out of a jam, that will be the true test of a good CEO. Performance management process is not really enforced. As result star employees do not always get recognized, and weak employees linger on when they should have been managed out.