A Proof of Concept Company - Anonymous employee Kurtosys Employee Review

1.0
29 Nov 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A great place to build your resume. If you are a motivated young person who wants to kill themselves to get some real experience under their belt for the next stage in their career, Kurtosys is a great place to do that. You will get to work with some big-name clients and may have the opportunity to work on some new technology. Make sure you pay attention to which team you are being recruited into, if you own one of the many dead products there will be no chance of escape. Also, assume any stock options are worthless you probably won’t be around long enough to get vested.

Cons

In the several years that I was at Kurtosys I worked with at least 5 different products implemented in technologies ranging from classic Java on a glass fish to NodeJS, I saw the UDM become the future of the company and then a ghost from the past. While it is fantastic to work for a company that will pivot its entire technology stack twice per year; it is a problem because they manage to sell one or two clients on every “product” as though getting someone to buy something somehow validates that it is done or worth pursuing. Every client at that firm is either the first-person alpha testing some new concept, or a legacy client implemented on some lark that the new engineers know nothing about. I would caution clients to ask about what they are seeing in demos, because most of what gets presented was built on technology that isn’t used anymore. The company pursues the same “proof of concept” strategy with respect to it’s people and offices. Kurtosys has been around for over Ten years, but 80% of it’s employees have been around for less than two. The company opens offices grows them to a certain point and then realizes that they can’t afford the quality of talent they need, so they divert their focus to another area and let the legacy office slowly die. Reno was replaced by North Carolina, New York will likely be next while South Africa swallowed India and is bleeding out London. Unfortunately, South Africa hasn’t proved to be a smashing success with high turnover and abysmal employee satisfaction ratings combined with wage pressure. It is only a matter of time before the company finds a new up and coming region. Kurtosys will probably follow the success of their WordPress vendor who hires all their developers in Poland.

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Kurtosys Response
8y
Thank you for your several years of contribution. We are sad to have you leave with a negative view, but we are sure that there were a variety of factors that kept you here for several years including the people. You are correct to point that we are a company that is evolving and iterating, and we hope that never changes. We are a technology company that is focused on innovation. We are committed to that. We could see how that may make some people feel uncomfortable while an exciting place to work for others. We have and will continue to explore new technology and iterate and evolve as necessary. Every software company has issues with legacy code. We have been around for 15 years, and we are no different. We focus on meeting our client’s needs, supporting them, and offer enhancements of their existing offerings while giving our teams the opportunity to expand their skillsets, all while continuously improving our client experience as technology platform. Kurtosys has been strategic about where we locate our people, although historically that hasn’t been the case. It has been a three year evolution and is core to our future. Expanding our operations in South Africa and Raleigh, NC have been key tenants to that strategy, due to the exceptional technical talent located in these areas. To say that the South African office has a high turnover, abysmal employee satisfaction ratings and wage pressure is incorrect. A recent Employee Engagement Survey revealed that over 80% of the team based in South Africa reported that they are proud to work for this company and are satisfied working here. We are rolling out new benefits and provide market competitive wages. In an industry where people change jobs at a very rapid rate, we have decreased our turnover rate significantly, and now have a People Operations team in place to continue to help improve retention. We are committed to our employees. They are in no way a curtain to hide behind, but are rather the backbone upon which we grow and succeed as an organization. Internal training initiatives, hiring from within, promotions, weekly 1x1’s and quarterly performance assessments are some of the tools in place to help develop the careers of our people. Is there room for improvement? Always. Will the CFO, COO read this before it is posted? Yes please! - not necessarily because he can do it better, but because he has helped build this company, he takes the time to read each review, and he cares about the views of all our employees current and past. Nikki Leske (People Operations Manager) Tamsyn Cooper (People Operations Specialist)

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5.0
30 Jan 2022
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CEO approval
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Pros

Amazing work environment, great people, great benefits

Cons

nothing honestly it is a great company.

1
5.0
19 Aug 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Our office strikes the perfect balance of fun and focus – my colleagues are fantastic and I love coming to work every day. Kurtosys gives me the opportunity to learn and make an impact on our business operations and growth - I’ve learned more in my time at Kurtosys than I have ever before in my career. Management encourages employees to think outside of the box, develop new/better processes, and to continually improve. They trust employees and are transparent about financial results and company priorities. Plus, employee contributions are rewarded: management regularly gives accolades to hard-working employees. Summary list of pros: great office location, regular team events/happy hours, responsive IT team, smart colleagues, managers that want to mentor and develop employees, and an improving HR and performance review process. Plus, we’re growing quickly, which creates more and more opportunity for everyone.

Cons

It would be great to get more PTO for the US office (3 weeks is the US standard, less than global offices), though the 10 holidays are nice. Other than that, I have no complaints and consider this my best workplace/career move to date. All of the expectations set during my interview process have been met and I have not been disappointed or let-down by the company in any way.

4
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