Lab49 Reviews
Updated 15 Dec 2020
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Full-time, Part-time
English
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- Contract
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- Part-time
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- - New York State
- - New York City, NY, US Area
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Pros
"Smart people who are generally good teammates, with the exception of some senior management" (in 12 reviews)
"Good work-life balance with WFH days, relaxed hours, team lunches and events and good trust between staff and management" (in 7 reviews)
Cons
"Senior management team mostly work from home which leads to a lack of direction and an empty office" (in 14 reviews)
"Parent company Ion is a horrible place to work, benefits are low and they have zero respect for women" (in 6 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.
"All good"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time for more than a year
Pros
a growing company, working with interesting clients on super interesting projects excellent hardworking top-class colleagues
Cons
fast and nimble company slowed down by internal processes from parent company
"Smart people within the intersection of Finance and Technology"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time for less than a year
Pros
Friendly colleagues Interesting work Good team collaboration
Cons
Need to find a better way to track project statuses
Continue readingPros
UX role gets great exposure to finance as you'll take on role of a business analyst
Cons
No communication from management, only way to find out about new direction and even offices is via job postings
- Helpful (5)
Pros
I think most of the bad reviews here are from people who weren't at the level required, LAB49 is a demanding job, you need to be very experienced (or able learn very quickly) as you'll be expected to master React and Angular alongside TypeScript, Redux and RxJS, have an expert knowledge of Java and Spring, whilst being accomplished in sql/nosql, comfortable with automated testing (100% coverage is the goal), devops and the cloud with good financial knowledge, if you can also do some C# and Python even better. You'll be switching technologies a lot and there's very little ramp-up time between projects, people are always busy, you'll often have to learn by yourself in your own time as you should be aware of all the latest technologies. You can't be overly sensitive, people tell you the truth here as there's great time pressure to get things done on budget. It's not for everyone but if you're good enough this is the place to be.
Cons
Performance/ pay review months late with 0 communication, senior managers still managed to agree promotions amongst themselves though.
- COVID-19
"Initiative & Drive = Success"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time for more than a year
Pros
Fair/Good Salaries, like-minded community of people, innovation/improvements are seeked and encouraged, inviting work space/building (when not in quarantine;YES this matters, at least to me), interesting projects and department expansions. If you are willing to work hard and not accept the common entitled employee approach, you will see rewards not only in your role but in your development; this company gives you the room to stand out, it is your choice if you choose to or not.
Cons
ION as the parent company, lack middle management, needs more transparent communication across all offices that supports a consistent message.
- COVID-19Helpful (4)
"Managers and management need to step it up"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Neutral OutlookI have been working at Lab49 full-time
Pros
Smart, competent, fun people (for the most part) Interesting projects and technologies Flattish hierarchy / more of a meritocracy Nice offices, decent snacks
Cons
Lack of transparency which is exacerbated during coronavirus. To date, we have received a total of 0 communications from leadership regarding the crisis (let alone on performance reviews and comp expectations). Extremely disappointing especially when we see other companies handling these times with grace and compassion. As another reviewer mentioned, fixed-price contract model is bad: "hero" mentality where certain individuals take on too much (long hours and weekends), boots on the ground end up absorbing all the non-commercial pain. Very few are actually qualified to be managers. Others can be inaccessible and/or outright mean. Lots of turnaround and unexplained layoffs. Very little is done to try to unify people and foster sense of culture.
Continue reading - COVID-19Helpful (3)
"Difficult parent"
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time
Pros
If you think these reviews are bad check out parent company ION, you are at least partially detached from them
Cons
It's not true there was no communication on coronavirus, there was a threat of losing PTO days. This is still more communication than around performance and comp reviews which are several months late (which happens every year) It's a much nastier company than the big financial corps its employees are normally placed at.
Continue reading - Helpful (2)
"Disorganization"
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time
Pros
Varied works as lots of short projects with different clients.
Cons
Technical leadership very much based on technical skills rather than leadership, they only partially get this from the CEO as he has neither. Lack of people skills in heads leads to alienation of engineers.
Continue reading - COVID-19Helpful (8)
Pros
There do seem to be some very smart people here
Cons
You know how to really judge a company by how they respond to a crisis, whilst the major tech and financial corporates extended leave and promised no redundancies during coronavirus. Lab49 laid people off, postponed bonuses and cancelled online training subscriptions despite no material impact to their business.
"Fast rising"
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
RecommendsDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Lab49 full-time for less than a year
Pros
General dysfunction and high staff turnover means you're likely to be in position of authority very rapidly, also makes it trivially easy to get promotion if you can handle the toxic atmosphere (this only applies in US, regional offices seem better run)
Cons
Lead developers force their outdated Redux patterns or testing frameworks on most projects
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