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Web Applications UK

Is this your company?

Your legacy code is my hell - Software Engineer Web Applications UK Employee Review

1.0
18 Jun 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly atmosphere Good for newbie developers Developers are encouraged to obtain Microsoft certifications, exam fees are paid by the company.

Cons

If you can't make it to CEO's select few, your daily role will be maintaining legacy systems. Legacy systems are written in classic ASP, VBScript and some JS. All business logic is in SQL stored procedures, finding the cause of a bug would be similar to finding a needle in a haystack. There is no architecture, it feels like it was developed on purpose to make you appreciate the OOP notion and higher level languages. Documentation is generally non-existent or out-dated, code is rarely commented. Whilst you are working on company's cash cow legacy systems, committing career suicide by dealing with long abandoned technologies, CEO's select few will be working on current tech stacks. However due to CEO's high standards, new product development will undergo lots of radical changes along the way, causing company to go in circles.

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Web Applications UK Response
10y
Thank you for feedback, it really does help us improve. Having read this comment we held a number of urgent internal meetings and re-emphasised the importance of ensuring we are giving all our developers the opportunity to work on all areas of our systems. It has always been my desire to do so, and I can assure you that I value all my employees, not a 'select few'. Mistakes were clearly made and I have sought to address them. I hope you have moved on to a good role.

Explore other reviews about Web Applications UK

2.0
30 Jan 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The project I worked on for 3years was a dream one and I'm forever grateful to web applications for making it a reality.

Cons

- Working with various levels exposed me to ridiculous management team especially Craig. He is so condescending, arrogant and abusive.

170
1.0
18 Oct 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Microsoft gold partner. Training is of high standard. Personal development time - to enable you to further develop your skills on any subject that you are interested in (provided it's relevant to the job). Nice building. Plenty of social events.

Cons

Confirming the general theme of other reviewers here.. given that the feedback was supposed to be taken on board, I feel that the leadership is still the same as previously described. The CEO uses a controlling method of management, it seems as though most of the time he is trying to prove that he is better than you - this comes across strongly in the interview, training sessions and general conversations. Not once did i receive any positive feedback from the CEO, wrong assumptions were made about myself, as a result of this I often felt singled out. I did witness the CEO's 'select few', these few often gave up any social time to excel in the CEO's tasks, and therefore were assigned to work on projects using newer technologies - whilst the rest maintained 20+ year old legacy systems, gaining little knowledge that would be useful later in life. Whilst I agree that to excel in a job, having a personal interest in the subject is necessary, however I do not agree that an employee should be 'punished' to an extent for not working in their social time. There were many opportunities where the CEO made it clear that certain out of work 'activities' were not compulsory, however there would be consequences if you did not attend.

125
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Web Applications UK Response
9y
Are you sure you worked here? With the exception of SQL, all the technologies we use here are less than 20 years old. The board and senior management of the company do a great job, and to claim I use a controlling method of management is a huge disservice to how we work as a company. I have addressed this at length in an earlier reply. As CEO, I do not assign tasks to individuals, and haven’t done in very many years. Work is assigned by the DGM, and is done so based on a desire to ensure employees get the widest range of opportunities. I care about every single member of staff’s progress, and there has never been a mythical ‘select few’. It’s very rare employees give up their social time to work, and it’s never demanded. Instead we encourage staff to maintain a positive work life balance; to that end, I would happily stack up our work time statistics against anyone in this industry. I just don’t believe that working longer than 40 hours in a week is ever productive, and we reiterate that constantly. Not a single person in this company has ever been punished or judged for not working in their social time. That said, employees who work in a silo and do not socialise tend to fare poorly as they don’t learn as readily from one another. Had you been braver in offering this feedback whilst you were here, and whilst you had the opportunity to do so (and were encouraged to do so), you may have broadened your understanding of what was actually being asked of you, and you may have gained much greater benefit from your time here. I hope you are faring much better in your current role.
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