Pros
- Pay and health benefits were very competitive when I first joined. - Excellent professional development budget (has since been scaled back) - Communications/Internet stipend was solid (has also been scaled back) - Highly competent and passionate individual contributors that are some of the most talented people I have ever worked with. - Excellent learning opportunities and experience for someone that is just starting out in the cybersecurity industry from both a technical and customer service standpoint.
Cons
- Biblical amounts of layoffs (5+ rounds annually) - Frequently changing business strategy that ends up leading to org restructures and RIFs - Shifted from Remote First culture to hybrid - Insane workloads due to a lack of support from leadership on setting boundaries/expectations with customers - Aggressively pursuing the outsourcing of software development and other technical work to India - Cold executive leadership (looking at you John Dilullo) that has not made an effort to create a positive culture built around taking care of people. It's painful writing this review because the first 2.5 years of my career at Deepwatch were an absolute blast where I learned a lot. The company had a start-up's usual electric atmosphere where things were flying at a breakneck pace and customers were onboarding like crazy. The company's leadership at the time made things fun with inspiring company kick-off parties in various locations, generous raises, frequent promotions, benefits, and overall kept things very informal. The employees at Deepwatch at the time were some of the most professional and talented people I had ever worked with. Unfortunately, due to severe financial mismanagement and a lack of an effective business strategy, the board had to replace the existing leadership with professional managers (rather than LEADERS) to help Deepwatch actually make money through cost cutting measures. I'll never forget John Dilullo's (the new CEO) introduction call where he specifically stated that he was going to take a hippocratic approach to his new position as CEO. He would "do no harm" and focus on observing everything for the first 90 days. Well, the first round of sweeping layoffs came less than 2 months into his tenure followed by another 4 rounds throughout the rest of the year. The once high morale, had been completely crushed and made me feel like I had a target on my back at all times as lay-offs started getting closer and closer to my department. All of the amazing people I had worked with were getting laid off one by one. Then the benefits started getting slashed and finally a proclamation that Deepwatch would be moving away from a remote first company to a hybrid one. If an existing employee wanted to move to another state, it would have to be one where a Deepwatch office was being opened; otherwise it would be treated as a voluntary resignation. I personally believe this is highly unethical as there are employees living in places where it is illegal for them to receive certain healthcare procedures and may need to move elsewhere. With all the lay-offs, John thought it was a great idea to hire a guest speaker to give us a motivational speech at the annual company kick-off (now virtual to save money) on "why change is hard" and why we need to accept it. I kid you not, he paid this speaker to literally chant "CHANGE IS HARD" at us on repeat and essentially talk down to us like children. Man the potential this company had was limitless but now it is just like any other soulless company that does not care about its employees.