Casting Networks Reviews

The products are crap. Customers are forced into paying for accounts because the company has monopolized the commercial casting software market. The founder/owner is a delusional narcissist with a self-serving bias and quick to cursing and screaming fits of anger towards subordinates at all levels. He hires specialists, then ignores their objective, data-driven advice in favor of his subjective gut-intuition, then blames everyone else when plans go awry. He hired a CEO but never handed over the reins of control. He trusts no one, micromanages everything, and requires his personal approval for minutia such as office supply purchases, essential industry software, hardware, hiring, marketing material, copy, designs, features, etc. In a company with fewer than 200 employees, they lost several top people within the last two years, including the CTO, VP of product development, VP of technology, VP of sales, VP of marketing, Director of architecture, and several PMs, POs, and senior developers, yet the owner takes no accountability for morale issues and blames the individuals. Anyone with self-worth gets out as soon as possible.

This is the most dysfunctional company for which I've ever worked. Blame lies at the very top with the owner who grossly overestimates his understanding of software development and design, and has no trust in his employees (the people who actually know what they're doing). A far more competent CEO and other executives were hired to remedy the situation; however the owner still exercises far more control than is good for the company's future. Morale is awful as employees are undervalued and asked to work extra hours to make up for the disorder and chaos. Veiled threats of firing are common. Most do not have a background in software development and therefore don't apply any sort of best practices. They work to satisfy the owner's whims and avoid his ire rather than serving the customers. There is very little data so strategic decisions are made on hunches one day only to be abandoned a short time later. Quality is compromised continually for the sake of arbitrary deadlines. The platform is outdated and inflexible and releasing updates is a nightmare. The company has opted to build all systems in-house rather than partnering or purchasing when appropriate. They waste energy and time supporting these systems rather than pushing the product forward.