Guidewire

A lot of the teams had great servant-leaders and managers. While it was growing, it was a good place to find opportunities, and people were valued for their whole contribution to the team, which made it a truly special place.

The technology stack was a bit dated, but that changed in 2018 with a focus on cloud-native technologies, which made retention a bit easier (but had a downside; see the Cons).

After a big reorg in 2018, the culture changed drastically.

One can understand and attribute it to the need for immediate execution on a twice-failed plan of transitioning from on-premise to cloud-native software.

This doesn't mean, though, that the culture can become more cutthroat and less gentle. Guidewire was a rare place in the tech industry where people respected each other, but maybe that's the sign of the times.

Gone was the understanding and people-growth focus of the old days.

Also, I feel that the career path for both engineers and managers was affected by this.

Tap into the root of the Guidewire culture and grow with it. You don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Revise and recalibrate the career paths along with expectations for engineers and managers, as it felt everything wasn't as clear as it should have been.