Just Another Contracting Shop - Senior Software Engineer Object Partners Employee Review

OPI's greatest asset is its people. Many of the engineers were the best I've ever worked with. They are a great technical force in the Twin Cities and host lots of meetups, etc. OPI has gone through a challenging acquisition but, even though I left (more on that below), I think it would be a great place to work and I highly recommend it, as long as the core OPI leadership is intact.

OPI is awesome but your daily life will be almost entirely dictated by your client. This is normal for consulting, though. Their benefits were restructured post-acquisition. While Improving's benefits were still very good, suddenly with more standard benefits, PAY became more of an issue. OPI paid, imo, within the average for the Twin Cities, but maybe on the lower end of average. However... OPI engineers are very good. :) With the benefits suddenly not all that special, I left for a 55% pay increase (not an exaggeration). Even though I loved and still miss OPI, it was too much to ignore.

I left independent consulting and joined Object Partners looking for stability, community, chance to work with top talent, medical benefits, and a desire to help be a part of a growing company, not just a placed body. I have been very impressed. The company is very open, holding quarterly meetings and posting to employees the state of the company and the 'consultant pipeline' if you want to see it. From everything I have seen, the very thin management layer understands that the consultants on site helping provide value to our customers are the company. This is not a sales and marketing company that hires to fill bodies to skim salaries to pay for the sales and marketing people. I've worked there. That is not this company. The people in the company that I have worked with, or met at social events, quarterly meetings, or on the company trip have been great. Have an issue with your workplace? There is someone to talk to. Have a tech question? Someone will help. Need to bang some ideas off a few people. No problem. Want to find someone to get a beer with? Covered.

I think that the people that have issues here are those that are more introverted, or those waiting for someone to notice their issue. The thin management layer means that it is difficult to know exactly how people are doing if they work at client sites. However, speak up, and they are extremely responsive. If the CL (consultant lead) program is new (seems to work pretty well to minimize issue above), that might explain mine and earlier folks different experiences.