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AutoRek Reviews
Updated 2 Nov 2023
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Full-time, Part-time
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Found 31 of over 32 reviews
63% Recommend to a Friend
66% Approve of CEO
Found 31 of over 32 reviews
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Recommend to a Friend
Approve of CEO
Gordon McHarg
25 Ratings
Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
Pros
Cons
- "Refusal to admit that pay is lower than going rates and therefore refusal to increase salaries" (in 3 reviews)
- 5.0FEATURED REVIEW2 Nov 2023Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee
Pros
Good perks, great culture and bonus scheme
Cons
nothing, overall really happy here
- 5.030 Apr 2023Senior ConsultantFormer Employee, more than 1 yearGlasgow, Scotland
Pros
Variety of work and customers to be part of. Chances to learn different areas quickly. Established company but very modern.
Cons
Some projects more hectic than others.
- 3.016 Sept 2022Senior Software EngineerCurrent Employee
Pros
Very good technical staff, Generally good people across the whole company, Some absolutely exceptional people, Some good managers, Relatively good perks, Events usually good, Christmas party better than any I’ve seen anywhere else (involving a stay in 5 star hotel with open bar, partners invited), Relatively good opportunities for progression, Good offices, Flat management structure, Training opportunities
Cons
Pay for technical roles is simply not competitive, good people are leaving and we are struggling to replace them, Legacy code and old technologies, general reluctance to adopt newer technologies, Poor communication between layers of management, Promotion / career progression can be a roulette, Bonuses / pay calculated seemingly randomly, Company politics (but I have seen worse at other companies), Easy for employees to be sidelined / reach career dead end, Have personally experienced disability discrimination, Heavy drinking culture, have witnessed inappropriate behaviour / comments from management while drunk, many of the events are centred around drinking, Company dynamic / overall vibe has changed for the worse after taking outside investment, Difficult to escalate issues of any kind
10
AutoRek Response2yThank you for taking the time to write a review, whilst you have listed some excellent pros, we are of course disappointed and concerned by some of the cons you have listed which we will seek to address. In response to your comment on pay for technical roles, we are in a constantly changing market where demand for tech skills is at an all-time high. We implemented a blanket increase on salaries in February of this year and have been carrying out independent salary benchmarking since then. Where appropriate further increases were applied in July based on that data. This process is ongoing, and we continue to look at various benchmarking sources to ensure we are competitive and fair across our business. In addition to base salary, we have also been looking at our total reward package including our benefits offering again to ensure we are competitive in the market. At AutoRek, we are always looking to discover, nurture and develop talent and we know that the skills learned and developed at AutoRek will make individuals highly desirable to other companies. We of course would love for everyone to stay part of the AutoRek team but know that individuals may have career aspirations that are not available at AutoRek at this time and will therefore move on. However, we are always proud to have been part of their growth journey. Regarding career progression, promotion and general structures, the business is growing and therefore we acknowledge there are some growing pains, but we are working hard to make improvements and where possible are engaging with the wider team to ensure we are getting these things right for the whole team. We were delighted to promote several team members in departments across the business recently and we are anticipating further promotions in the coming months. The external investment and the growth of the business, is allowing us to implement some changes including putting further investment in to engineering, accelerating innovation, and introducing newer technologies. In addition, there is a great deal of opportunity to develop skills, be involved in new projects and progress your career with an established and fast growing FinTech. Regarding your comment on alcohol at events, our events can involve but are not centered around alcohol. Our events are generally following our quarterly company meetings and often will involve an activity such as bowling as well as some food and drinks. Alcohol is available for those who want it, but no one is ever pressured to drink with many people abstaining and opting for softer drink options. It is a very much a personal choice. The company will generally pick up the tab at these social events and individuals are free to drink up to a safe and sensible limit – as always this is a blend of management oversight and personal responsibility. The purpose of the events is for people to socialise together with or without alcohol and it is incorrect to suggest anything more than this. In relation to your comment on disability discrimination, we are of course very concerned that you feel that this is the case. We are not aware of any instances of this and therefore we are keen for you to reach out and provide us with more information on this to allow us to address immediately. Any form of discrimination is completely unacceptable at AutoRek and I urge you to reach out to the People Ops team as soon as possible. Thank you again for taking the time to leave feedback, we do take everything on board and are taking steps to address many of your points to ensure AutoRek remains a great place to work and build a career.
- 2.029 Apr 2023Senior ConsultantFormer Employee, more than 1 yearEdinburgh, Scotland
Pros
Office is brill, team all patient and helpful, freedom to work with customers on difficult projects and solve them best you can.
Cons
Constant timesheets while some departments are allowed to blatantly slack off with no expectations. bewildering office politics were you are not allowed to point this out else you are the problem.
2 - 2.017 Oct 2022Senior Software EngineerFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsEdinburgh, Scotland
Pros
- Strong coding standards and quality code base - Friendly atmosphere among employees - Impressive team activities outside of work - Work from home
Cons
- Refusal to admit that pay is lower than going rates and therefore refusal to increase salaries - Lack of transparency in regards to salary and other HR decisions - First level management have little say in salary level - Disparate pay for same/similar work - Snr Management plays favourites
6 - 2.022 Oct 2022Software EngineerFormer Employee, more than 1 yearEdinburgh, Scotland
Pros
The Edinburgh office is well placed and relatively well equipped. The product team is entirely friendly and passionate engineers able to inspire potential in junior staff and get them working on complex problems in short timeframes. Also a strong culture (within product) of knowledge sharing across colleagues of all levels. The new career progression paths have a promising concept of non-managing lead engineers, but months after announcement the actual details of how to achieve the promotions is still missing. Code reviews done in teams in a format where all engineers can raise concerns and learn from the comments being left for others.
Cons
Tech stack is largely quite dated, with resistance towards paying for open source libraries being used as core building blocks of the product. Extreme resistance to basic things in (especially frontend) modern development practices, like static analysis, bundling toolchains, Javascript frameworks etc. Desperately needs someone in charge of development infrastructure so that solutions aren't implemented then immediately dropped to life support to atrophy. Deadlines often completely ignored, and though improving level of specification of new features can be horribly lacking, often because they've been hurriedly scheduled as an easy thing to keep the MD from meddling or to bring forward vague plans from the road map already contracted as complete for clients. Relations between employees and senior management at an all time low after several half-truths and moved goalposts around pay and career progression pathways. The senior management clique have no idea what they're doing it seems and get offended when simple questions are asked about topics directly affecting livelihoods. After an honest appraisal in an exit interview, senior management reportedly flew off the handle. HR a serious problem until very recently, where utter incompetence was excused through them being busy. If any serious issues happened, they almost certainly wouldn't get escalated for fear of retribution. "Is well known for taking things in exactly the wrong way" is not a description that should be applicable to anyone working in HR/People Ops. Some ethically questionable clients. Also a very inconsistent approach to diversity, and extremely bad general level of diversity across a lot of teams. Engineers with much better things to be doing often pulled onto sales calls to be a warm body, or to help consultants with delivering solutions because of bad planning and lack of training for them. Instances of large swathes of the product department being pulled into doing admin work because of unrealistic promises made by the sales team. Attitude to COVID was extremely laissez-faire, with people regularly in office for no good reason before it was allowed by regulations. For a company whose business is regulatory technology, it's not a good look. Computer equipment a lottery depending on when you start and which specifications it has been decided to cheap out on this time. Tendency towards social events being drinking based (though nominally optional). Annual away day based around "we're going to this place but the rest is to be a surprise", which is fundamentally incompatible with several forms of neurodiversity.
9 - 4.013 Nov 2022Technical Support EngineerFormer Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
Nice activities Christmas and summer party Fully support in bad times. Most People are nice to work with
Cons
Travelling is like must for a day or two after covid was over. Some weak processes Pay was okay Salary rise was small even though company was progressing and profiting. Less effort to keep retain existing employees as don't see the full picture that new employees are 5 times slower than old one for atleadt 2 years due to the complexity of the solutions.
- 5.07 Oct 2022Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 1 year
Pros
Great people, everyone is always helpful and friendly Can tell the CEO really cares about people Fantastic benefits, including annual away day, Christmas party, etc. Free drinks/snacks in the offices Learning and development opportunities Approachable management team Opportunities for progression and this is encouraged My manager is exceptional at being a leader Supportive people and workplace team
Cons
The company is growing so quickly
2 - 2.028 Sept 2022Senior ConsultantFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsGlasgow, Scotland
Pros
The Delivery Team were brilliant and very supportive Had to do some long hours to get projects over the line but afterwards you could take a breath and recharge.
Cons
If you were not a member of the "In Crowd" you got sidelined. No matter how hard you wroked. Every event I attended involved too much alcohol which lead to some very awkward meetings
6 - 2.03 Oct 2022Software DeveloperFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsEdinburgh, Scotland
Pros
Free breakfast Free hot and cold drinks Access to online learning
Cons
Resistance to change Easily overlooked and forgotten about Team has to pick up the slack of really bad members instead of taking the hard choices and replacing them.
5
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AutoRek has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 32 reviews left anonymously by employees. 63% of employees would recommend working at AutoRek to a friend and 70% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has improved by 1% over the last 12 months.
63% of AutoRek employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated AutoRek 4.0 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.8 for culture and values and 3.6 for career opportunities.
