Anyone here worked for a small company that was acquired? How was your experience?

[s0me0nesmind1]

They have to be super competitive to keep top talent because they know how easy it is for us to hop around if we please.

It also comes with 25 days PTO and 10 holidays.

And no I'm not in SF or the Bay Area, I'm in the DC Metro area. Like 7 miles north of DC.

Interesting... when you say "Super competitive" is this something that only applies to your type of position or everyone in the company?

I'm just trying to understand what industry or positions get such great benefits.... It's definitely not programming in general from what I've heard from the likes of... people that code for EA Games or something random like that.

The 25 days PTO and holidays is nothing special, I had that at Big 4 accounting firms... The 100% paid health insurance and large HSA contributions is the part I haven't seen. Same with the 10% 401k Match. Don't get me wrong, I have had damn good health insurance at < $100 per pay period for family coverage - just nowhere have I seen it 100% paid

 

[purbeast0]

Interesting... when you say "Super competitive" is this something that only applies to your type of position or everyone in the company?

I'm just trying to understand what industry or positions get such great benefits.... It's definitely not programming in general from what I've heard from the likes of... people that code for EA Games or something random like that.

The 25 days PTO and holidays is nothing special, I had that at Big 4 accounting firms... The 100% paid health insurance and large HSA contributions is the part I haven't seen. Same with the 10% 401k Match. Don't get me wrong, I have had damn good health insurance at < $100 per pay period for family coverage - just nowhere have I seen it 100% paid

There is basically way more openings than people to fill them, so companies want to fill the ones they can with good people so they have to beat out the competition.

Companies like EA are big ass corporations which rarely have great benefits. The company that bought the company I am currently with is a huge corporation and I just have no want to work for a company like that, and I'm already seeing how corporate things are with these crappy benefits. There are a lot more of these things I don't like for instance, today we had a meeting about our new benefits and if we have questions, we have to shoot an email to some HR alias where someone I don't even know will be one of 10 people on the alias who respond t you. I don't like that. I like working for a company where if I have a question about benefits or to HR, I can shoot an email to the head of that area who I know by name and know from face to face.

The new company I'm probably going to land with is VERY similar to the current company I work for before they got acquired. It's weird though because at our meeting today, it was just the old company at a meeting. It's like we are still the old small company but we're not.

Since I made this thread I've talked to probably 8 more people who were in a situation I am where they were acquired by a bigger company and literally everyone has the same exact story - it was fine for 6-12 months then things started to change for the worst.

At least I got a $20k bonus when we were acquired though (as did everyone in the company) so there is that.

 

[Fritzo]

I worked for a medium company that was acquired (well, I was a contractor that witness one). It was ugly- the entire office being called together and then suddenly told tomorrow is their last day. People were crying, angry.....it was heartbreaking. Some people were kept around to train replacements. They retained me to run their offsite networks for a bit. Was easy money because I had to support giant buildings with 5 people in them, but after seeing that I vowed I would never work for a publicly traded company again.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Interesting... when you say "Super competitive" is this something that only applies to your type of position or everyone in the company?

I'm just trying to understand what industry or positions get such great benefits.... It's definitely not programming in general from what I've heard from the likes of... people that code for EA Games or something random like that.

The 25 days PTO and holidays is nothing special, I had that at Big 4 accounting firms... The 100% paid health insurance and large HSA contributions is the part I haven't seen. Same with the 10% 401k Match. Don't get me wrong, I have had damn good health insurance at < $100 per pay period for family coverage - just nowhere have I seen it 100% paid

I‘ve had health insurance 100% paid at multiple companies, including my current one. Next year though, we have to pay $12.50 per check.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I worked for a medium company that was acquired (well, I was a contractor that witness one). It was ugly- the entire office being called together and then suddenly told tomorrow is their last day. People were crying, angry.....it was heartbreaking. Some people were kept around to train replacements. They retained me to run their offsite networks for a bit. Was easy money because I had to support giant buildings with 5 people in them, but after seeing that I vowed I would never work for a publicly traded company again.

I pledged I would never work for a publicly-traded company again and 14 years after I made that pledge, I’ve stayed true to my word. I wouldn’t work for one of those companies unless I was literally starving and about to lose my house - otherwise, no money or title would be enough for me to remotely consider it.

If my current company is ever acquired, I’d probably jump ship too, as those things rarely work out for those who were members of the acquired company. Been there, done that, never again.

 

[Luna1968]

we were a company of about 1200 people with a office in every state. got bought out by a multinational. they left us alone for 5 years then started with the bullshit big corporate bullshit. Expense reports went from simple to a couple hour nightmare, all sorts of computer based HR training crap, trying to buy IT shit turned into a bureaucratic redtape shit show that would make the government envious. i left at year 7 after the buy out after 20 years a the company. I now work for a private company of about 700 people. love it. no more SOX, now more HIPPA, no more DHS audits. no more of getting some hot shot VP who just finished a masters program and turning you job into a check box on a matrix. fuck that shit. I am now a one person shop, the COO is my boss and he leaves me alone. he trust my judgement. its nice not answering to 4 different bosses.

 

[Platypus]

It sucks, some things are better but most things are worse. Once the culture slips, it's game over.

I'd bounce before it gets worse personally.

 

[Luna1968]

Not really a small company but every couple years my company is acquired or otherwise restructured in some way. It's kinda ridiculous. So many umbrellas and silos.

There was a company wide software audit a while back and there are over 400 different software applications being used throughout, many of which all do the same thing. It's a mess. In this department alone we use like 5 different ticketing systems.

Every time they restructure or buy something it just adds to the mess.

I suppose the good thing is that with all this, most people do keep their jobs... If they were to actually consolidate and fix everything and make it more efficient it would cost lot of jobs.

good grief. that is a mess.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

we were a company of about 1200 people with a office in every state. got bought out by a multinational. they left us alone for 5 years then started with the bullshit big corporate bullshit. Expense reports went from simple to a couple hour nightmare, all sorts of computer based HR training crap, trying to buy IT shit turned into a bureaucratic redtape shit show that would make the government envious. i left at year 7 after the buy out after 20 years a the company. I now work for a private company of about 700 people. love it. no more SOX, now more HIPPA, no more DHS audits. no more of getting some hot shot VP who just finished a masters program and turning you job into a check box on a matrix. fuck that shit. I am now a one person shop, the COO is my boss and he leaves me alone. he trust my judgement. its nice not answering to 4 different bosses.

The thing that always amazes me most is that you hear of all the alleged efficiency in US corporations and when you actually work for one, the amount of red tape, inefficiencies, and overall stupidity is mind-boggling. Companies push garbage like ServiceNow on its workforce, force people to take hours and hours of mindless HR training which they've taken every single year, and the red tape involved in even getting simple stuff accomplished is unbelievable:

1. At one company I worked for many years ago, my manager came to me and said "I want you to find training on product X and send me the information." Now, product X was some obscure product which I couldn't possibly care less if I ever trained on it (in fact, I've never seen it again since that company), but I said "Ok, I'll get the info for you." So I dutifully searched the company's site, found a list of suggest courses, times/dates, costs, etc. and emailed him the list. He came out to me and said "Ok, now write a business justification for attending that training." Why would I write a business justification for a training I didn't care about, didn't request, and one MY MANAGER told me to find? Needless to say, I never wrote a single sentence to justify it.

2. At another company, I put in a change request to make some sort of environment change. Unfortunately, the time/date fell when I was on vacation and apparently in my rush to finish things before I left, I forgot to communicate to the vendor to perform the work. When I got back, the change was marked as failed. I called the change manager and said "Hey, here's what happened - can't we just reschedule?" NOPE! Not only that, but because it failed, they tried to make me fill out several forms, attend several meetings, and then go before a committee to explain it. I humored them until the last part - one of the IT Service Management simpletons came to me to discuss meeting with the committee and I blew up and told her I wasn't doing that and if it was necessary, she could talk through it with them as I'd wasted enough time on the stupidity. By the way, that same ITSM dufus is something who wanted me to explain what a backup and restore was.....

3. At the same company as #2, my team was going to be tasked with security patches for certain servers. I requested that we buy a utility to patch them for us instead of us manually patching like 40 servers. Anyway, the tool was $2500 and I thought it was a slam dunk deal. Nope! I literally had to fill out multiple justification forms and attend multiple "software committee" meetings to justify it. Obviously, I told them to go fuck themselves and the tool never got bought and I left the company not long after.

Now, I know I probably offended some IT Service Management and ServiceNow fans with my descriptions above. If those folks are offended, well, too bad - ServiceNow is garbage and ITSM is lethal to morale and operations if run by morons.

 

[Luna1968]

The thing that always amazes me most is that you hear of all the alleged efficiency in US corporations and when you actually work for one, the amount of red tape, inefficiencies, and overall stupidity is mind-boggling. Companies push garbage like ServiceNow on its workforce, force people to take hours and hours of mindless HR training which they've taken every single year, and the red tape involved in even getting simple stuff accomplished is unbelievable:

1. At one company I worked for many years ago, my manager came to me and said "I want you to find training on product X and send me the information." Now, product X was some obscure product which I couldn't possibly care less if I ever trained on it (in fact, I've never seen it again since that company), but I said "Ok, I'll get the info for you." So I dutifully searched the company's site, found a list of suggest courses, times/dates, costs, etc. and emailed him the list. He came out to me and said "Ok, now write a business justification for attending that training." Why would I write a business justification for a training I didn't care about, didn't request, and one MY MANAGER told me to find? Needless to say, I never wrote a single sentence to justify it.

2. At another company, I put in a change request to make some sort of environment change. Unfortunately, the time/date fell when I was on vacation and apparently in my rush to finish things before I left, I forgot to communicate to the vendor to perform the work. When I got back, the change was marked as failed. I called the change manager and said "Hey, here's what happened - can't we just reschedule?" NOPE! Not only that, but because it failed, they tried to make me fill out several forms, attend several meetings, and then go before a committee to explain it. I humored them until the last part - one of the IT Service Management simpletons came to me to discuss meeting with the committee and I blew up and told her I wasn't doing that and if it was necessary, she could talk through it with them as I'd wasted enough time on the stupidity. By the way, that same ITSM dufus is something who wanted me to explain what a backup and restore was.....

3. At the same company as #2, my team was going to be tasked with security patches for certain servers. I requested that we buy a utility to patch them for us instead of us manually patching like 40 servers. Anyway, the tool was $2500 and I thought it was a slam dunk deal. Nope! I literally had to fill out multiple justification forms and attend multiple "software committee" meetings to justify it. Obviously, I told them to go fuck themselves and the tool never got bought and I left the company not long after.

Now, I know I probably offended some IT Service Management and ServiceNow fans with my descriptions above. If those folks are offended, well, too bad - ServiceNow is garbage and ITSM is lethal to morale and operations if run by morons.

that ServiceNow crap is exactly what happens when somebody who has no business in IT buys as a "slam dunk" in putting a checkmark in a matrix. aka mba's who want to measure everything.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

that ServiceNow crap is exactly what happens when somebody who has no business in IT buys as a "slam dunk" in putting a checkmark in a matrix. aka mba's who want to measure everything.

Where you can, measurement is worthy. I think you CAN measure things correctly for everything, the problem is that not everything can be measured in a monetary way.

For example, you pay high dollars in IT security so accidents don't happen. So yeah, find someone that can measure based on "We paid $X of dollars and in return got $0 in additional costs! Yay!" A stupid person would see that and act as if it's a bad thing.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Where you can, measurement is worthy. I think you CAN measure things correctly for everything, the problem is that not everything can be measured in a monetary way.

For example, you pay high dollars in IT security so accidents don't happen. So yeah, find someone that can measure based on "We paid $X of dollars and in return got $0 in additional costs! Yay!" A stupid person would see that and act as if it's a bad thing.

My issue isn't entirely the measurement piece; it's the excessive bureaucracy involved. Why am I spending 4 hours on forms, reviews, counterreviews, and meetings to justify a non-intrusive 5 minute change? Why am I being required to waste several hours explaining an issue which boiled down to forgetting to notify a vendor of a change? This change was NOT critical or urgent either. Think of all the time and money wasted. The only thing being measured in those cases is the level of stupidity of the people making the rules.

In one of the companies I worked for, all change requests went to this IT Service Management group for review. These people were glorified secretaries - literally, I had one lady ask me to schedule a meeting with her to explain backups and restores (I told her no and to use Google). I could've made up any shit I wanted and they would've been no wiser. Their main task was to make sure the draconian forms were filled out correctly with all the fields filled out and shit like that. There is generally also a massive lack of common sense in these sorts of things - like the incident I outlined above where I forgot to communicate to the vendor to make the change before I left on vacation. That's an open and shut case - was it really necessary for me to fill out reports (again, standard forms), attend a meeting to do a "Five Why Analysis" session, and above all that, then go before a committee to explain what happened? Think of all the time and money wasted on that open and closed case, and it would've cost them more if I hadn't told the lady (the same lady who wanted me to explain backup and restore) to get lost when she told me I had to go before a committee to explain the incident. At that stage, they could've just fired me - I didn't care.

And I'm not sure if you've ever seen ServiceNow, but good lord it is a flaming pile of shit. Their salesmen are pulling the wool over so many eyes. It's neolithic interface and horrid performance are inexcusable.

 

[Red Squirrel]

good grief. that is a mess.

Yeah it really is. There's like 5+ different NOCs too, we're one of them. I sometimes say "why don't they just consolidate this stuff?" but then at same time I think "be careful what you wish for". Inefficiency is literally the reason we all have jobs, and that goes for any company. Any job that needs to be done by a human is to make up for an inefficient process that could be automated or consolidated but isn't. There is a limit of course, like you'll never really automate break fix stuff that requires a physical person to go on site to do wire splicing etc but anything done at an office can be automated.

 

[nakedfrog]

And I'm not sure if you've ever seen ServiceNow, but good lord it is a flaming pile of shit. Their salesmen are pulling the wool over so many eyes. It's neolithic interface and horrid performance are inexcusable.

I haven't directly used it much, mostly integrated with their APIs, but it seems better than Cherwell ITSM or Remedy.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I haven't directly used it much, mostly integrated with their APIs, but it seems better than Cherwell ITSM or Remedy.

I tend to think you might be right - I don't know Cherwell but Remedy was awful and I think that maybe the market for ITSM stuff was so bad, ServiceNow won by default.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Remedy is one of the ticketing systems we use. It's actually one of the "better" ones. At least it's half decently modern. The ticketing system we use the most runs on an older style system, I think it's a VAX but I don't remember for sure. I just know it's not a normal server. The client requires a very specific version of Java and IE 6 to run. It runs in some sort of localized Citrixy type virtual thing. Not sure exactly how it works as it acts like a normal app, but it's not exactly running directly in the OS. It's almost like a VM, but it's not.

 

[kn51]

Remedy is one of the ticketing systems we use. It's actually one of the "better" ones. At least it's half decently modern. The ticketing system we use the most runs on an older style system, I think it's a VAX but I don't remember for sure. I just know it's not a normal server. The client requires a very specific version of Java and IE 6 to run. It runs in some sort of localized Citrixy type virtual thing. Not sure exactly how it works as it acts like a normal app, but it's not exactly running directly in the OS. It's almost like a VM, but it's not.

That sounds horrendous.

 

[clamum]

Holy crap bro, a $30k raise? Frickin BA man.

I actually am looking for a new job cause I'm really unhappy at my current place but I've only talked to the recruiter (who got me this position; we have a good relationship). But it's taking a while (I think partly because my skills have atrophied at this place and I don't have experience with all the new stuff a lot of companies are looking for) so I think I'm gonna apply to more on my own (I've done a couple only).

 

[Fritzo]

Holy crap bro, a $30k raise? Frickin BA man.

I actually am looking for a new job cause I'm really unhappy at my current place but I've only talked to the recruiter (who got me this position; we have a good relationship). But it's taking a while (I think partly because my skills have atrophied at this place and I don't have experience with all the new stuff a lot of companies are looking for) so I think I'm gonna apply to more on my own (I've done a couple only).

Keep at it, the right company will come. I was in the same boat- stayed with a dead-end place for 17 years, got beaten down with them telling me I wasn't good enough, feeling like I could never go anywhere due to an ungrowing skill set...

You just have to put yourself out there. Monster, LinkedIn, friends, friends of friends, let it be known you're available. Also, spend some evenings and weekends sharpening your skills. Learn about the latest and greatest, get some certifications (if applicable), see what people are doing that's new and exciting these days. This will give you subjects to talk about in interviews and give the appearance of a person that help move things forward.

Finally (and this is my best advice), if you do get an interview, it's important to ask them WHY they're hiring. The answer will tell you everything you need to know about the company. If you hear dramatic stories, badmouthing, spite, anger, excuses, or BS, you know those are red flags that you yourself may have to deal with if you choose to work there.

It's a booming economy and nearly the entire workforce is employed. Therefore employers are desperate for experienced workers and will focus more on experience than education these days. 90% of getting a job is just proving you're a reliable, caring, decent person that can help. Go get 'em!

</peptalk>

 

[Red Squirrel]

That sounds horrendous.

Could be worse, I could be one of the IT guys that has to manage this garbage. But yeah it's a real shit show.

They are talking about Windows 10, I am really not looking forward to that at all. I bet we will end up with lot of VMs and other work arounds to everything.

 

[Midwayman]

I've never been through a buyout that ended well for anyone other than the c-suite. Nothing dramatic, but all the usual erosion of benefits and generally more corporate culture with additional bureaucracy for everything. You might get a year before they really start turning the screws.

 

[cirrrocco]

Danggg. some of the stories are horrendous. I was at Apple, Paypal, Ebay . Accenture, IBM. At the end of all of those, I resigned myself to never working corporate again and now work public sector. My current job is amazing

In the past few years I have been here
- I have never had to work past 3.30 pm [when i leave work]
-'urgent' weekend issues can be taken care of on Monday
-very chill environment
- Lots of Vacation time
- Pension plan [The peace of mind just from that is worth the loss of pay I had to take]
-Huge Neffing time [some weeks I may work 2-5% ,maybe I have become efficient at what I do]


Cons
- Sometimes pace of work is slow, I learn more in one week working at a fortune 500 than a year here
-red tape is fucking horrendous
- people trying to protect and safeguard their jobs all the time
-No free coffee, the meeting rooms are crap, crappy old microwave, one crappy old ass toaster. sucks working in the accounting dept at a city hall. They try to save every fucking penny whereas planning, capital project team leak money big time.
-

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Danggg. some of the stories are horrendous. I was at Apple, Paypal, Ebay . Accenture, IBM. At the end of all of those, I resigned myself to never working corporate again and now work public sector. My current job is amazing

In the past few years I have been here
- I have never had to work past 3.30 pm [when i leave work]
-'urgent' weekend issues can be taken care of on Monday
-very chill environment
- Lots of Vacation time
- Pension plan [The peace of mind just from that is worth the loss of pay I had to take]
-Huge Neffing time [some weeks I may work 2-5% ,maybe I have become efficient at what I do]


Cons
- Sometimes pace of work is slow, I learn more in one week working at a fortune 500 than a year here
-red tape is fucking horrendous
- people trying to protect and safeguard their jobs all the time
-No free coffee, the meeting rooms are crap, crappy old microwave, one crappy old ass toaster. sucks working in the accounting dept at a city hall. They try to save every fucking penny whereas planning, capital project team leak money big time.
-

Public as in government? Yeah... of course there is less oversight and drive to work hard lol.

You have no corporate board to report to - you don't have to worry about funds because it's based on taxation, not on selling a product/service.

Like you said, your biggest challenge is just fighting over the table crumbs of budget.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm officially taking the offer they gave me this morning. I asked for $5k more per year and they did it so this is like the biggest no brainer I've ever had in my career. I'm excited to be with this new company and I will still have that smaller company feel. I've worked with multiple people from the company on prior projects and I know it is a perfect fit culture wise too.

 

[nakedfrog]

Congrats!