Pros
- Flexible work schedule: 7 - 10AM start time - Good hardware - recently purchased new computers for many developers - Some support from senior leadership to implement initiatives from junior employees - Some genuinely nice coworkers - The Delphi code base is well architected and a great code base to learn principled design from. I'm not kidding, it is very well done, especially considering the age, and that a lot of their products still runs on it.
Cons
- No support from direct management for professional development of junior employees - Abusive management -- In one performance review my manager began the session with "you're so arrogant, no one wants to work with you." -- Another senior leader said, "I didn't really think you'd stick around this long", which I don't think was meant as an insult, but is pretty demoralizing to hear from senior leadership - Poor technical competency -- When I first broached the idea of using polymorphism to simplify code and apply DRY principles, other senior developers were very apprehensive. I believe the rationale was something like, "other developers won't be able to code behind you." I can only surmise that they thought the application of basic OOP principles may have been too radical. -- Very little use of the thread pool or asynchronous principles. -- Little to no use of caching. -- Swaths of monolithic code, with hundreds and even thousand line methods - No Opportunities for Advancement -- It seems when looking for employees to fill new roles, they don't like to promote from within. Strange thing is that many of the developers are former ITC employees. -- Large Delphi code base, and 10-year lag in most development principles make it difficult to gain translatable experience. - No defined performance metrics. -- If you do really well, there is really no baseline to inform leadership of it. - Noncompetitive Pay -- The rates on the market for the work they want you to do are about 10 - 15% higher than what they offer as of late 2016 (even after 18 months of salary increases).
