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private:cio
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https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
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Sep 30th, 2020 12:00AM
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Open
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Open
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CIO
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Computer Engineer
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Santa Barbara, CA
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|
Great company of people, the pay not so much
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Amazing people to work with. There is a wide range of skill levels and expertise and everyone is willing to help.
The company is, at least presently, not a very corp type environment. Hiring is based not just on skills but on personality. Not being a suit and tie type person is not a detriment to the hiring process here. Being more people oriented allows for a great mixture of personalities of coworkers.
This company loves to celebrate it's people and their accomplishments. It's a very family like atmosphere, and they strive to keep it that way.
Communication within the company is great. For support this is a god send, as 1st tier support can get a reply from project managers and higher level engineers without push back. For inner company matters, between Slack and email, everyone is kept informed about what is going on.
Willing to hire people with little experience in the field. This is a great entry point for people who want to work in IT but don't have a ton of degrees and certs under their belts. In a town where Bachelors in Com Sci is often a bare minimum requirement, this is a great thing.
They will pay for certifications that have been passed, and will provide educational materials for those tests. They really do want their people to improve skill sets as much as possible.
|
As a managed IT firm, you live in a state of never knowing what strange environment you'll work in from ticket to ticket. Training is on the job, so often times you'll get thrown in to the deep end of the pool. While this keeps the job from being boring, it leads to a high level of stress.
Vertical growth is extraordinarily hard, if nonexistent. They generally believe in having one person for a given specialized field. This becomes a problem when that person is sick, on vacation, or otherwise unable to work due to life circumstances. So when something goes down the options are wait for the person to come back, or as what generally happens, the person has to clock in from wherever they might be and fix the problem.
It's a very family like atmosphere. Anyone that has ever worked in that kind of workplace knows what kind of double edged sword that becomes.
Benefits are poor. A simple cold will burn out your sick leave with little effort. PTO is now accrual basis. To be fair, this is a recent shift due to abuse by ex employees. Health insurance has gotten worse and more expensive at the same time. They use a secondary insurance that is guaranteed to confuse local offices and pharmacies. If you can get it to work, it does a good job but there is more effort involved than should be needed. Vision and dental is offered, but it's a reimbursement system with a low cap. So unless you can float the charges on your credit card for a month, you're not getting that tooth fixed.
The pay is about as basic as you can get. Hiring wage is under living wage in this town. The CEO has mentioned this in replies to other reviews but the changes he talks about haven't been seen by people on the ground. Pay increases are generally married to certifications rather than job performance so getting a raise is difficult.
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1.0
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POSITIVE
|
0.0
|
NEUTRAL
|
1.0
|
APPROVE
|
0.0
|
4.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
5.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
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Reassess the pay for hiring. The current living wage for Santa Barbara is $16.45 and you pay less than this for new hires. While that may be market pricing, at the end of the day it's still less than a living wage for this city.
Create a better vertical path for growth.
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0.0
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[]
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REGULAR
|
No
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Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Aug 17th, 2020 12:00AM
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Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
Engineer
|
United States
|
USA
|
Good company and good people, but didn't last
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|
Company was good to work for, welcoming and open to all members of the staff early on. Great life balance, unless you were in the on call rotation.
|
The company changed after the acquisition of Tektegrity. Tektegrity's micromanagement was a problem Company became more corporate and distant after merger. Many great people left the company for much better pay. bad attitudes from teams at different sites towards each other.
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
APPROVE
|
1.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
Recommend that they take a closer look at the staff and the culture and focus on morale. Need to encourage teams and some managers to be more open and less judgemental.
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0.0
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[]
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REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
2.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Sep 10th, 2019 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
|
United States
|
USA
|
Current Employee
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|
HR is reasonable and approachable. Fun work environment. Employees genuinely care about each other. We celebrate a lot of successes and all work hard together when there is a challenge. Constantly trying to make life more productive for us our clients and our company and communities. They do not micromanage. Many company paid perks. Employees can work remotely. Causual dress code.
|
Insurance for dependents is expensive. No 401(k) company match currently. Only 3 sick days per year. Reviews are not regularly scheduled.
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
APPROVE
|
0.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
4.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Aug 10th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
|
United States
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USA
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Good
|
|
Lots of learning... challenging environment. Flexible hours
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Not enough business relations or networking to advance career
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|
|
|
|
|
|
0.0
|
5.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Jun 26th, 2018 12:00AM
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Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
Senior Systems Engineer
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United States
|
USA
|
Systems Engineer
|
|
challenging environment, contant learning, fast paced environment
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It takes a very long time for management to make any real changing, lot of micro management in some areas
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
|
|
1.0
|
APPROVE
|
0.0
|
4.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
4.0
|
3.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
4.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Jun 4th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
|
United States
|
USA
|
Great room for growth and you can live in paradise
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|
If you demonstrate the right customer skills and attitude, you can start at CIO in a customer service role without much I.T. experience, or you can start as a more seasoned engineer, and either way, there is a lot of room to grow and expand your knowledge/experience and grow in your career as an engineer. The main reason is that there are so many clients, and so many different technologies, and if you show the drive and aptitude you can be touching all these different technologies and always be learning something new. Different firewalls, different switches, different SANs, different servers, different hypervisors, different applications, etc. That is so valuable in becoming a full stack engineer. You're not just always dealing with the same technology over and over day after day. I can't explain how valuable that is. And if it's a little bit out of your league, there are always people ready to help. CIO will also provide training materials and time off on exam day to take valuable certifications (although certifications aren't highly prioritized here.) So you can really grow if you put the work in. They also recognize other skills (like leadership) and will incorporate that into your role, after a while.
There are a lot of great people who work here, and the atmosphere is pretty family-like and social. There are things like wheel spins and Nerf wars and prizes and special events, which all get good attendance because they're actually fun. And I have to mention that Santa Barbara is paradise. I have met almost no one who doesn't love it here. There are also offices in San Luis Obispo and Fresno, but I am not as familiar with those towns.
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While most people (including myself) think Santa Barbara is paradise, you should make sure it's right for you, because it is more expensive than most areas and also isn't very big. Also, if you prefer to just be the I.T. person for one company and deal with the same things day in and day out and maybe not even have a full workload, you might not like it here.
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Jun 4th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
Help Desk Analyst
|
Santa Barbara, CA
|
|
New Job
|
|
Relaxed but professional culture, good pay & benefits, extensive training and support, spirit of collaboration
|
Can't wear shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops.
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
5.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
1.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
May 30th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
|
United States
|
USA
|
Nice
|
|
Nice place, friendly coworkers, in Santa Barbara
|
not really any real downsides
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.0
|
4.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[{"countHelpful": 0, "languageId": "eng", "userJobTitle": "CEO", "__typename": "EmployerResponse", "originalLanguageId": null, "id": 1690922, "responseDateTime": "2018-06-04T09:45:07.717", "translationMethod": null, "response": "Friendly is something we strive for and we try to make it a prerequisite for all new hires.", "responseOriginal": null, "countNotHelpful": 0}]
|
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=350614
|
Feb 26th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO Executive Council
|
|
United States
|
USA
|
Client Relationship Manager
|
|
- Work/life balance
- Engage with C-level Executives
- Opportunity to travel
- Great people to work with
- Awesome benefits
|
- Functional groups operate in silos
- Direct leader is not collaborative
- Unclear strategic vision and long term viability
- Lots of finger pointing among teams
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
2.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
350614
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|
|
private:cio
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=258728
|
Feb 8th, 2018 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
CIO
|
|
United States
|
USA
|
Network Engineer Intern
|
|
Some flexibility, casual, office building is relatively nice. They will train you depending on companies needs.
|
Not a strong bureaucratic structure, leadership a bit weak. The office space is a bit messy.
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
0.0
|
NEUTRAL
|
|
|
0.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
|
258728
|
Open
|
Create a better bureaucratic structure.
|
0.0
|
[{"countHelpful": 0, "languageId": "eng", "userJobTitle": "CEO", "__typename": "EmployerResponse", "originalLanguageId": null, "id": 1691420, "responseDateTime": "2018-06-04T14:40:21.777", "translationMethod": null, "response": "Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback. This is a good reminder for us that messy office space leave impressions if we like it to our not. \r\n\r\nIt would be interesting to gain more clarity on the structure that would have been more beneficial to you while you were here. Personally I have a high degree of intolerance for bureaucracy which I take to mean \"overly concerned with procedure at the expense of efficiency or common sense.\" which seems to be different than what you suggested we could improve on. \r\n\r\nWe are always looking to improve especially when it comes to new employees and internships so we would welcome the additional insights.", "responseOriginal": null, "countNotHelpful": 0}]
|
INTERN
|
No
|
No
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
Jan 17th, 2021 02:18AM
|
CIO
|
|
|