Codurance Reviews

Codurance is, by far, the most toxic workplace I've ever worked in. It's probably surprising to read that, since the company is backed by the software Craftsman community. It seems to be the place to be if you care about quality work. So let me just share a list of things I've personally witnessed: - I joined the Spanish branch for a lower than market offer, taking it as a learning opportunity (it's the Craftsman community after all!). - Just after joining I was sent straight away to a client, with no training or explanation of what was expected. The team I was sent with were all new joiners as well. - Work consisted on "guiding" the client in pair programming sessions, leaving them to drive while we offered advice. None of us had any experience or training in the specific language, framework, business context, or existing architecture. The client's engineers felt they were being forced to be supervised by us, and it was painfully obvious for everyone involved that we could offer little relevant advice, so it was effectively just us looking over their shoulder while they worked. - We were told by Codurance that this lack of knowledge was ok and expected, and that we should just share abstract good practices and learn the specifics on the way. Very soon, we found out through the client's concerned communications that this was not what they had been sold, and they expected very significant specific experience. - After asking for some relevant training, time for self learning so we could train ourselves, or at least letting the client know that we were inexperienced consultants, we were recommended soft skill resources, such as "How to win friends and influence people", the book by Dale Carnegie. This was not a sarcastic reply on their part, it was the actual help we got. - After just a week or two, when the client complained about the difference between their expectations and what was offered, we were sent to meetings were we were accused of "lack of leadership". From that point on, micromanagement practices followed, including: - Removing a member of the team (who had also joined the company just a couple of weeks before) - Enforcing that all code were merged to master at the end of the day, so managers could see and review the amount of work done that day by each person (we were explicitly told that was the reasoning). - Higher ups communicated, literal quote, that they would be "watching us from above like hawks" during the following weeks checking for potential mistakes. - Usage of certain words in the workplace was restricted. Words that were banned from being pronounced included problem, difficulty, challenge, and other "negative" terms. - People were threatened with being fired. This is just a very small sample of the things I saw in the short time I spent at Codurance - I left as soon as I could. Surprisingly to me, my departure was met with astonishment by leadership, which tried to make me change my mind. I had some exit interviews, where I was told that their takeaway was that "they should be more clear during the interview process that they expect people to be proactive". I have no idea how things got to the current state from the previous prestige of the company, but I feel morally required to warn all my peers to stay the hell away.

- Poor people management strategy with unrealistic growth ambitions that ended up in people made redundant with the legally cheapest possible redundancy packages. - People first and transparency until it gets difficult and then true colours are really shown.