Netcracker Technology Reviews

When recruiting me, this company did a very good job of selling me on their "entrepreneurial spirit" and ability to chart your own course for the good of your career and the company. Fast forward a year, wherein I now know much more about the company, and I've learned that "entrepreneurial spirit" is what any other business professional would call "disorganized and lacking any direction." The entire company is a fraud. It's merely a facade to a tragically archaic, unprofessional and amateurish leadership (if you can call it that). They have no idea what they're doing and everybody in the company knows it, including other senior leadership members who frequently laugh and joke behind their backs about the ridiculousness of the company's top leadership. The senior leaders use words like "weird" and "strange" and "insecure" to describe the top leaders and their bizarre decisions, including the CEO. And this level of disrespect is a recurring theme. One of the senior leaders would have somebody in her office having what seemed to be a pleasant conversation but once the person leaves, she comes out of her office and badmouths that employee. It leads one to wonder what she says about you when you're not there? It's a complete and total failure of leadership. She and other senior leaders can frequently be heard yelling obscenities throughout the office. The foul language and unprofessionalism is astounding from people who are supposed to be your superiors. How are you supposed to have respect for that? And also to that end, the company lacks any kind of real structure. Decisions are made not by proof of concept or proven ability to provide a tangible ROI, but rather the whim of your superior and "how they feel" in that particular moment with no business logic applied at all whatsoever. But that's just the symptom to a larger problem; the "leadership" at all levels in this company are so full of themselves that their mood decides the often disjointed and illogical direction of the business at a level so micromanaged that even choosing the very words you're allowed to use is scrutinized by the top leadership (meanwhile, they unprofessionally swear like sailors). They do not hire you because you are an expert, they don't want you to employ your skills, they want you to guess what they're thinking even though they haven't thought it yet so they can always hold you at ineptitude and then once they do you are simply to carry out their menial, micromanaged tasks. Which leads one to agree with the "weird" and "insecure" criticisms of the top leadership, but the entire mindset rolls downhill into what can only be described as the most dysfunctional setting in which I have ever had the misfortune to work (spanning two decades in the industry). It's all fake. The whole thing is fake. They are not in the business of fixing things. The entire business is "how do we look good." It's not "how do we do good." This was a recurring theme for the entire time I was there. It was never about doing anything great, only looking great to the outside world. They were only interested in hiding their inabilities and failures. When something went wrong, which happened often, the question wasn't, "how do we fix this?" It was always, "how do we hide this?" They would ask me, "how do we make this go away." To which I would always answer by starting with owning the problem and then working hard to do the right thing and fix it. That was never the right answer to them. In fact, they thought it was bizarre that I would suggest we own our failures and fix them. They were looking for a plan to cover it up. We never saw eye to eye on this. To give you an example, a person left a negative Glassdoor Review and one of the top leaders actually called the company's lawyer to find out how Netcracker could sue Glassdoor. Notice the solution wasn't to evaluate the employee's comments and find ways to fix the environment and culture, nope, it was how do we get it taken down and if Glassdoor will not agree to remove it, what grounds do we have to sue them (because nobody has ever thought of that before). That pretty well sums up how Netcracker operates as a whole. Just slap another coat of lipstick on the pig. Fix nothing, just hide it. That also covers how they have any good press at all. Every time a negative review came in, the company panicked and instructed employees to put in positive reviews to offset the bad ones. So, as you're reading through Glassdoor and seeing Netcracker's relatively good rating, temper that with the FACT that they instruct employees to put in good reviews to offset any bad ones that come in (look for the pattern, it’s obvious). You'll notice also that I'm not the only brave soul to mention this in a review. In addition to having employees put in "fake" or "sanctioned" reviews, that also carries over into their industry reviews. By and large, every positive review, every award and every piece written about their products or services are bought and paid for. They even buy analysts. Again, the whole thing is fake. Even some of their products and services are fake. They even list that they have "industry leading" or "award winning" products and services on their website that do not even exist. Take, for example, their Social Media product that they claim to be so great on their website... It doesn't exist. They don't have that product. At all. Not even in the planning stages. Just another Netcracker lie. They hope somebody will inquire and when they do, they'll either resell another product or scramble to get together a demo which will appear to be a working product. If an order comes in, they'll simply use that contract money to then develop the product. And it will be tossed-together junk. How is that industry leading? How is that award winning? It's simply embarrassing. And that's the level of respect they have for their customers. For the entire time I was at Netcracker I kept trying to figure out how this company made money. It was a bit of a mystery and anybody you asked didn't have a logical answer. They have only one real customer (according to them) and that's Telefónica. If Telefónica says jump Netcracker asks, "how high?" They'll bend over backwards for Telefónica. Unfortunately, the other companies for which they have contracts are pushed-off and forced to take a backseat. They're often referred to as "Nothing Accounts" or "Too Small" or "Junior Accounts" by the company’s leadership. It's almost as if Netcracker has contempt for the other companies for which it is expected to produce. They also blew a huge account while I was there, a major American telecom. It was ugly too. They scrambled to try to again slap the lipstick on the pig, but this one really bit them. Out of respect for them, I will not mention that company's three-letter name. I did finally figure out how the company makes money, and in what could only be explained as a Ponzi scheme between Netcracker and their parent-company, NEC, it is the cash infusion and pseudo-partnerships that keep Netcracker alive. Make no mistake, without NEC propping them up, they would fold like the paper tiger that they are. They'll tell you how financially stable they are, but they're really referring to NEC and not them as a subsidiary. And don't even get me started on how they knowingly hired unauthorized Russian programmers to work on U.S. Government contracted services... And how a whistle-blower had to expose it... You can do your own research on that. And finally, they treat their employees as if they're less than human. In the case of Netcracker's Indian employees, an person in the company’s leadership once referred to them as "disposable employees" and other members of leadership have referred to them as "code monkeys" - I'm quoting because these are their words, verbatim. And they treat them as such. Don't take my word for it, that sentiment is captured right here on Glassdoor by Netcracker's actual employees in India. As for their Russian and Ukrainian employees, we had many in the Waltham office and I had become quite close with them. They have many grievances about the amateur leadership and how they're treated by them but they don't dare say anything about it because the company holds their work Visas over their heads. If they step out of line, they'll be sent back. So, they continue to take the whip. It's basically modern-day slavery or extortion, you can decide which. As for the American workers, you'll be demeaned and convinced that you are inadequate, even if you don't have performance targets or reviews. You'll get no direction at all and still be expected to get there, wherever "there" is? They'll call it "entrepreneurial spirit" which is just their way of holding you accountable for just about anything they want at any time they want so that they never have to payout your negotiiated bonus. You'll be exposed to the most unprofessional people you have ever had to work for or with. You will not know that going in because they are very good at painting a very pretty picture of their otherwise absolutely toxic culture. I debated on whether or not to leave such a brutally honest review of Netcracker, but ultimately, I decided that if I could save one person from having to learn about this company the hard way, and live in utter misery, then it was in fact my duty to tell the real story of Netcracker according to my own first-hand account of what I learned, witnessed and observed. There is no amount of money and no company worth trading your values and principles (or self-esteem, if nothing else) for, and living in misery for. Save yourself the trouble, please, trust me. Everything I said here is 100% true and without a shred of exaggeration. Ultimately, it's your decision, but you cannot say you haven't been warned. RUN!