Oh boy/girl, I’m not quite sure how to start this review but let’s give it a try.
Nexus must be the messiest place I’ve ever worked. It takes a certain time to kick in but when it does, boy/girl does it kick hard. You slowly realize that what you were promised in your interview is pretty much all lies.
• Worst projects I had in a long time
You won’t be in a nice team working in recent technologies. In fact, you might end up in a team of 7, all isolated in your corner working on independent pieces of software with a client that keeps changing its mind. You might be lucky and end up in the fewer teams that are Okay but most of them really are pathetic* (*word employed by the CEO when talking about a team). You’ll be working in never delivering teams, doing staff augment or even worse, working in old undocumented GSOFT frameworks.
• CEO’s management trio (CEO, COO, CFO), directors, etc...
If you ever wished to find a company where your true potential might take you to a leading role, nexus is definitely NOT for you. All the management (and management players to come) are the CEO’s friends and/or old GSoft coworkers. This concern has been raised many time but is always discarded. The worst part is that even his best friends end up leaving the company realizing that hockey references might not be enough to lead a company.
• Incompetent management, flawed salary reviews
As you can imagine, having a management composed of friends instead of competences results in a management that has no idea of what they are doing. One example would be that it takes around 4 months to complete the annual salary revision. We’re not talking about a business with 500 developers. We’re talking about a business that has around 30 developers. You’d expect an acceptable result since it’s taking such a long time, but it must be the most flawed process I’ve ever experienced. The management already has a salary they want to give you before even starting the process. The feedback process will change depending of your team. No team has the same standard of rating, but they all use the same grid. You’d expect that grid to be used only as a feedback tool, but it ends up being hard linked to the salary grid. The management will give you the lowest between your evaluation and what they initially thought of giving you. They won’t mind if your lower than your evaluation bracket. They have no idea of what they are doing.
• HR lab
This company is 100% a HR laboratory. They will read a new book and will change everything according to the book thinking it’s the new way of life. They’ll read a LinkedIn post and implement word by word what it says without even considering if it applies or not to nexus. They think they know everything but have no experience. Sure, they care about their employees up to a certain point and will work for you but always remember that HR is standing by the company, not for the employees. They redefine the company vision every month. In fact, it feels like that’s the only thing the CEO does.
• LinkedIn influencers
Everything that is done at nexus has a single purpose. That purpose is being on the ‘kin. We hired a girl?. Let’s put it on LinkedIn! We hired a black person? Let’s have him on every group picture we post on LinkedIn. Let’s brag about the PTO, the transparency, the diversity. Management is obsessed with their LinkedIn and how much reach they have. It’s almost as if they were using their jobs only to build their network. All this is said but in a non ironically way.
• Transparency
Nexus always brags about transparency but, I wouldn’t consider them more transparent than any other jobs I had. They share the company income numbers (like most jobs I had). One of their goals is to share the employees’ salary with everybody inside the organization but we have no idea of the CEO’s salary scale. They often answer questions during monthly meetings in a political way. You’ll know the CEO really is a hockey fan when you’ll see him skate over questions/issues. They don’t tell clients when an employee is burned out until the last second. They also say they sell value instead of hours to bill more doing less.
• Controversy around the primary (and only) stakeholder
Nexus is a funded by only one person. Considering there is a huge controversy with his new containers project in the Old Port of Montreal and Nexus is dependent of his funds, I’d expect the company to close its doors at the end of next year if it can’t pull out big numbers. Don’t take my words for it, this is only an assumption.
• Star players and climbing the ladder
As you’d expect with a company leaded by a CEO promoting his friends, you 100% need to be on his good side if you want a promotion or climb the ladder. The management team seems to find new favorite players and stick to them even if they might not be doing as good as others. As long as you are liked by the CEO, chances are you will be getting the promotions you apply for. Promotions really don’t go to the players deserving them, even if they apply multiple times. As another review on here said, good luck climbing that ladder.
