Job Responsibilities
Time spent per week:
Doing scut work for the client at the client's site:
40 hrs
Doing reasonably high-level work for the client on-site:
10 hrs
Learning on my own about the alphabet soup of technologies:
10 hrs
Reading the 100 emails per day generated within Vitria, some of
which have importand technical details I need to know:
10 hrs
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Job Requirements
They really didn't seem to care, as long as I already had a
sufficient familiarity with enough technologies. Their in-house
training is valuable only because the trainers don't pretend the
product actually works as advertised, so they tell you the crazy
things you have to do (and not do) to make it (more or less) work.
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Uppers
They give you a decent laptop PC and cell phone to use.
Opportunity for occasional (very infrequent) travel to California for training
(nice if the weather sucks where you are).
You never have the same manager for long enough to hate him/her.
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Downers
Their training is not particularly useful; you have to learn A LOT
on your own.
Every consultant is involved with client management: no matter how
technical you are, you have to be aware of the image we're trying
to project, and how (which isn't always easy to find out).
You never have the same manager long enough to get used to him/her.
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Lifestyle
The dress code and hours are very dependent on the assignment, but hours would
never be less than 60 if you're doing everything they expect.
They rarely ask you for input before telling you where your next assignment is
(i.e., "you're going to be in Detroit for the next 6 months").
It's hard to know how long an engagement will last; sometimes a long-term gig is
cancelled on an hour's notice. On the other hand, sometimes you can be sent away
for months on a day's notice.
Any time an executive shows signs of incipient personality, they get chopped off
at the knees.
They don't even try to hide the fact that you are only a "resource" to them.
Period. And any problem you may have, they really don't have any reason to care,
or even pretend to.
They have been known to fire people over the phone, and even by email. Of
course, it's just "resource reallocation."
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Compensation
Base salary about 100K, which is not bad until you divide by the
hours and consider the attitude.
Bonuses usually aren't paid, although they're talked about plenty.
Likewise, stock options and employee purchase are discussed
endlessly, but the stock performs so poorly that almost no-one
makes anything on them.
Benefits are pretty OK, except the company's too small to have a
very good health insurance plan. Of course, since you're in the
field, it's such a hassle trying to find a doc to go to, that you
don't use it much. Sometimes it's hard to even find out what to
do, if you're in a state they don't have an office in.
Don't even think you might get a raise unless you get a promotion,
and even then it's not guaranteed.
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Advice to Jobseekers
If you have a reasonably good idea of what you're doing, you can
do better than working for Vitria.
If this is the only company you can con into hiring you, do
yourself a favor, and at least sell any stock purchase within an
hour of getting it, so it won't fall below your cost basis.
Pray you don't get sick while on an assignment. Hard.
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