DigitalGlobe Reviews

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe full-time for more than a year

Pros – -salary
-benefits
-coworkers
-bagels
-imagery is cool to look at

Cons – -Internal development is a mess. There is no sense of beginning and end to project lifespan. Management is no position to be proactive and the overall development process is at best adequate for handling of defects only. New development is a patched together and any architect that has come into the company has left. The management team is disconnected from the program management and the chaos and reliability of systems shows. Overall the internal issues with the systems are ignored and everything that is addressed is done so with a band-aid.
-resources and talent is underused and unfortunately the story you are told on the way in is nothing like the reality of the situation. This is a classic bait and switch opportunity and it truly isn't fair to anyone entering the company.
-real career stopper. No real chance to be promoted or opportunity to learn new technology. The few that do get the opportunity have done so through undesirable means. Overall a career stopper. Contractors are treated better than full time employees.
-bonus program is not as promised. Forget about what you are told by HR, look to get any promise in writing.Otherwise come bonus time you will be very disappointed.

Advice to Senior Management – -Quit the firefighting, understand that firefighting is a result of terrible management and processes.
-Growing the company is only making things worse. The company is not scalable as is and any more growth at this time will break the only employees that matter.
-Extremely disgruntled work force across the board. No survey is going to help this workforce, in-action in the past does nothing to build confidence that the leaders know what they are doing. Overall the leadership is viewed as disconnected and not concerned or able to solve the problems.
-quit the bait and switch hire people to do a job and don't change it on them, if you hire them for a development position don't tell them they have to provide on-call support.
-Hire true architects to solve problems don't just convert spaghetti programmers into architects. That doesn't solve the issues.
-Lastly hold managers accountable for their failures. Look at your planning and implementation record. Things may in the end work but throwing all hands on deck to get something done is a terrible approach and also it just breeds additional issues.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Some really good people, interesting domain

Cons – Understaffed, too much reliance on heroic efforts by a few developers to meet goals, and process is virtually non-existent.

Advice to Senior Management – Realize that the domain is one that requires considerable experience to grasp well. Don't expect that staff aug contractors will be able to sufficiently come up to speed in less than six months or so. Focus on filling the holes in the management chain and actually do some medium term planning -- too many projects (virtually every) put on hold because issues that should have been expected created emergency situations.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DigitalGlobe as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Contractor pay was good.
Bagel day was good.

Cons – - Disorganized.
- Lack of planning.
- No structure.
- Non-existent schedules.
- Not friendly to contractors.
- Sweat shop.
- Disgruntled employees.
- High turnover.
- System non-functional most of the time due to only one environment shared by development, test and production.
- Employees so worried about looking good to management, they are careful whom they associate with.
- Very competitive atmosphere.
- A lot of time is wasted here.

Advice to Senior Management – Implement structure, organization and planning. Stick to schedules. Ensure there is an operational system by adding multiple environments (development, test, production).

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Great people. Casual atmosphere. Lots of technology to play with. Good salaries.

Cons – Management does not know how to make the best use of its talented people. Career advancement can be very difficult if you don't know the right people.

Advice to Senior Management – Get to know your employees. Learn what they want to do with their careers and put them where their strengths can be put to best use. It will be a win-win for everybody.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe full-time for more than a year

Pros – High salaries, cool business, smart people.

Cons – There is very little respect for anyone (email is ignored, frequent no-shows to meetings), flexible hours are not really that flexible, the work is boring, continually shifting priorities means projects are never completed, dependency on old processes with little support for change.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to build on employee engagement - it's taking way too long to see progress (ie a YEAR). Clearly communicate business priorities and see them through before switching gears. Communicate better - quality not quantity.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Everyone is nice at DG, great benefits, and the office building has perks like a little gym, yoga room, Gibs bagels, and free fountain drink. In most departments the job is flexible with the option to work from home and set your own hours.

Cons – If you are looking into getting a job here, please read all of these reviews because everyone I have read is 100% true.

No Career Growth: I have held the same position for almost 5 years, I constantly am asking for a promotion or ways to receive one. The answer remains "we are working with HR to get more career growth within our department" - this has been the same answer for years!

Regardless of how great you are, your review will always be average. My review score was the same as my coworkers who is constantly late for work, sick, or making mistakes. If you are a hard worker and like being appreciated for what you do, stay away from this place.

If you are any smart, more than likely your boss will find you to be a threat (because most of the managers are uneducated) and will find something wrong with you. Managers are notorious for taking credit for their employees work.

Unprofessional Environment: I have heard of so many people filing sexual harassment cases to HR. The work environment is too casual, people cross the lines constantly. There is a lot of crying, gossip, and yelling in this work place.

Unfair Treatment: Some workers are allowed to work from home, while another person with the same job title is not. In addition, the salary is way off. My coworker has no experience or degree and makes about $35k more a year then I do! I have 11 years experience in this field and a relevant degree.

No Raises or Bonuses: Because everyone is lumped into average rating, forget a raise. Bonuses tend to be $1k-$5k a piece. With major cutbacks with a new CEO I doubt anyone will get a raise over the next few years.

Unless you have a strong passion for this industry and all you want to do for the rest of your life is play with satellites then go for it. If you just want a job in management, HR, etc., I would not get a job here.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees when you ask for feedback.

More attention needs to be given to the Operations staff, there is a lot to fix there.

Send Management to management courses.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at DigitalGlobe full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Cool, cutting edge tech that is always interesting and challenging. You certainly won't get bored here. If you are simply interested in "playing" with technology and research, this is the place for you. It's a geek's paradise. If you have aspirations about growing as a business professional, however, go elsewhere.

Pay is not bad upon entry, but don't expect a raise. Aim for the highest salary possible, because now matter how well your annual reviews go, or how hard you work, you will almost certainly be rated "average". The fix is in by the company leaders so that they don't ever have to treat you special again, after you've been recruited and signed your employment contract. The only ones who get raises/promotions are the brown-nosers and/or former co-workers/cronies of the leadership team.

Cons – Leadership is arrogant, dictatorial, and completely disconnected from the "working class". I have never encountered a leadership team that is made up of more cronies, classmates and former co-workers (and, I'm not kidding... NEIGHBORS). There is a complete lack of vision for the long term strategy of the company, instead they focus on how to gouge customers to pay more for less, because it is easier than developing new and innovative products.

People are treated like very intelligent cattle. Shuffled around on whim without any regard for what the employee may want. Career paths are entirely non-existent. Employee recognition is a joke.

The present CEO has an "open door policy", but fails to mention the pit-bull guarding the door or the fact that he's never on the other side of it. Blissfully ignorant of what is going on in his own company, he has surrounded himself with people who will never tell him the truth and which he refuses to see himself.

There is One Vice President for every 35 employees and one Director for every 28 employees in the company, if that tells you anything about how top heavy the organization is. And humble alms must be paid to each and every one on a regular basis in order for you to be successful on any project.

Every decision in the company is made by consensus, because no one wants to be held accountable for anything. You will interview with everyone from the VP to the janitor to get into the company, and each and every one had better like you, regardless of whether or not you a qualified.

Ethnic minorities, LGBT, or physically challenged people need not apply. Even if they let you in to meet EEOC quotas, you won't go anywhere. You'll just be a novelty.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop hiring your friends, neighbors and former staff and get some real talent in the company who aren't afraid to tell the emperor that he has no clothes.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe

Pros – My DigitalGlobe colleagues are all very hard working, knowledgeable, and helpful. The facilities, equipment, and benefits are decent. I believe the products we put out are high quality.

Cons – Communication is lacking, processes are cumbersome, and it takes forever to get anything done. I know the satellites are innovative, but not much else is.

Advice to Senior Management – 1. Invest in your employees: develop career paths for all employees, implement an employee review process that's meaningful (and fair), grow your workers into managers, but provide training so that new managers know how to manage before you promote them.
2. Streamline processes and reduce bureaucracy.
3. Improve communications.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at DigitalGlobe

Pros – Work Force overall is very competent. Good folks work here at this company. A great opportunity to work with some very cool technology.

Cons – Senior Managements lack of focus and strategy affects the workforce and morale. They make it pretty hard to grow within.

Former Employee – worked at DigitalGlobe

Pros – Cool technology, exciting business. Secure government contracts mean the business isn't going to shut down. Good benefits package and employee break room.

Cons – Senior management is terrible and they think people are widgets. As long as you keep your head down and don't challenge the status quo, you'll be ok. The HR team is completely turned over every two years, if they can't retain HR people then something is seriously wrong.

Advice to Senior Management – Management is in it only to cash out and most employees know it. They make promises they don't keep and credibility is low.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend