Decisioning Solutions is looking for a Senior Java/J2EE Developer:
• Translate functional and non-functional requirements into robust implementations
• Enhance the design of the existing code base
• Perform implementations to specification in a timely fashion
• Ensure exceptional code quality and thorough testing (both at unit and system integration level) on every newly developed feature
• Participate in the design and planning process with the Development Manager and the rest of the Development team
• Regularly liaise with Project Management and Senior Business Analyst teams to ensure customer needs are met and highest level of service and support maintained
The Good
The location’s pretty good. Central and easily accessed by TTC, good shopping and food about. Not ideal for motorized transit (or cycling). The compensation is, they claim, industry-leading. There’s some implication that the process might be agile: “Extreme Programming (TDD, Continuous Integration/Build, Weekly Iterations, Retrospectives, …).”
The Bad
There’s not a lot of detail there about the compensation, beyond the ‘industry-leading’ bit. There’s not a lot of detail about the project work involved.
The company website looks as if it’s been populated with stock photos and gives the impression of a small company that doesn’t really know how to market itself (company name, product names), but at the same time, they seem to be successful enough, at least from their news feed. It’s hard to really get a feel for the company and their work.
I’m a little worried that the developer position talks about agile methods, but the IT Project Manager position doesn’t seem to have the same kind of descriptions. Hard to imagine that it’s easy to do a good job of XP if you’re being project-managed by someone with PMP education and no agile leanings.
Conclusions
Although the compensation is claimed to be ‘industry-leading’, there’s not a lot of detail about what that actually means. Personally, I think salary has to be >= $100k to justify that title, but that’s because I know there are occasionally developer postings listed (and accepted) at $110k-$120k in Toronto. Alternately, the remainder of the compensation has got to be pretty stellar, say six weeks vacation and RSP matching.
If you’re looking for a senior developer position, this is a moderately interesting one. If the compensation is, as they suggest, ‘industry leading’, then it might well be worth closer examination.
Toronto Tech Jobs 
[…] Bites: Decisioning Solutions, Intelliware Decisioning Solutions is still looking for that senior java/j2ee developer […]
Hi there. does anyone have any feedback about this company?
What’s it like working there?
Leave this one alone folks. Speaking from previous knowledge
1) Developer turn over is extremely high and well above industry norms.
2) Compensation is certainly not “Industry Leading” if truly $100K is leading these days. In fact a lot of their website has these subjective type phrases.
3) Every business’s sole reason for existence is profit. Unfortunately, In this case profit is too strong a factor in this organization thereby overriding other aspects including: Quality of work, client satisfaction, employee satisfaction and employee incentivies.
For the most part, good developers quickly leave after experiencing this work environment.
On a scale from 1(=really bad) to 5(=really good):
Location: 5
Salary: 3
Benefits: 3
SLDC and development methodologies: 1
Communication between team members: 2
Turnover (of developers): 2 (=high turnover)
Advice: before signing anything, read carefully the papers and visit your future desk.
I have heard that this is one of the worst companies in Toronto to work for. Multiple contacts have told me they underpay their staff, upper management is extremely difficult to work with, and employees are the last priority for the company, Many labour rights violations, turnover is extremely extremely high.
As Peter above states, profit is the bottom line for this company and anything will be done to get more. Again, the treatment of the employees is the last thing this company cares about.
I give this company 0.5/5 on Peter’s scale.
Awful place to work! Low wages, high turnover, constant overtime and zero perks. Labor laws are violated all the time, you will be yelled at, cursed at and put down in emails and in front of other staff. There are no raises or bonuses. Work any where else but here. Everything above is correct.
Another previous experience account: Developers were not treated well which resulted in low morale, high turnover and poor quality of work.
At this time the company benefits were very basic – only heath insurance, with 10 or 15 day vacation ( 15 days if you were lucky ). No bonus, no salary review.
The job description at the time didn’t fit the developer position and was definitely misleading.
Basic advice based upon experience is “Avoid”.
If you considered upper management you will be abused, sworn at and your skills belittled. If you are a developer or BA you are merely a number. For such a small company the executive won’t even be bothered to learn about you (e.g. your name even).
Everyone operates under a dark cloud when executive is in. This has been made worse with the enforcement of a social network policy that has been masqueraded as “the industry norm” but in fact challenges labor laws on multiple fronts.
Finally, the company makes great pains to look bigger than it actually is. What ever number of you are told in your interview, take off between 30 – 50% and this is a more accurate representation. Take this difference into account in your deliberations as it will be reflected in your workload.
Describe this “social network policy”? Thanks!
I recently applied on Craigslist to decisioningsolutions (which is also Roamex) for a Senior Business Analyst position in Toronto. From beginning to end my experience was negative.
I was called in by the recruiter to come in for a technical test. Upon going in, I was excited by the central location, I noticed a dedicated “interviews” button on the phone outside a glass door, which instantly gave me the impression they have a high turn over rate. I was greeted by a young lady who asked me to write a technical test, which I seemed to have passed, and she continued to ask me questions about my resumé. Unfortunately she asked me questions that made it look like she didn’t bother to read it or just wasn’t thorough, and overall I found her robotic and completely impersonal. Given that the company web site is a stock-image filled void with no real information other than marketing buzz words, I started asking questions of my own; What’s the company culture like? What is the salary range? What does your company actually do? She couldn’t give me an answer on either of these and at the end just said “I’m HR I don’t know these things”. Ahem. Major flag. We politely parted and she said she’ll let me know.
I then got called in for an in-person interview with 2 directors and the initial HR lady. As an aside, I worked as a technical lead and business analyst for major IT and consulting firms with elements of project management for a little over 6 years. In these positions I’ve also been tasked with web development as that is part of my skill set. In spite of this, I started working straight out of high school and have had great jobs in the past, both contract and permanent. After saying this, the ‘director’ instantly pointed out (in exact words) that he doesn’t think “I’ll get very far in life with out University” and “you’re not as qualified as you think”, as if my resumé was filled with 6 years of Tim Hortons and Starbucks Barista jobs. What was more annoying than his arrogant demeanour, was the “HR-lady-robot”, who was nodding to everything he was saying like a lapdog throughout the entire interview. He then asked me some very generic questions, mostly “give examples of this/that”. The most and only technical question he asked was “describe the development / project management lifecycle”.
Finally I implied that his web-site has zero information, and asked him what his company actually does / what the products actually are. From what he told me, the company is ~70 people at that location, essentially the company makes an ASP solution for verifying credit checks for telecoms, among other things (whatever those are). By the level of ego, I would have assumed he was the CEO of RIM. He also mentioned with a smirk they have an office in the US because analysts in Toronto are incompetent. Funny, one of the world’s leading and largest consulting firms I was employed by doesn’t seem to have a problem hiring analysts here. Granted that may be true, but still was a douche-bag thing to say.
I’m sure the company makes good money given telecom clients, but overall impression: run for the hills. Arrogant napoleonic director and salary discussed was exceptionally low. After coming back from interview I googled them and it’s telling when typing a company name in Google yields “decisioning solutions bad” as an auto-suggestion. Wish I read the reviews before I went for interview and wasted my time.
Hi DD
I would like to know what kind of questions were asked in the technical test as well as the interview with two directors?.
2) Is the test a paper based or computer based and what kind of sections it consist of?
3)Can you please give me your phone number so that i can call you and know little bit more about the interview questions?You can send your phone number to my mail id nick.danny123@gmail.com
Thanks
Hi Nick,
The written test consisted of several pages of multiple choice questions pertaining to the specific job you were applying for. Subject matter was mostly DC topology situational questions, as well as (in my case, for BA role) basic concepts any legitimate BA should know like the back of their hand. It wasn’t difficult.
As for the in person interview, it was as I described in my post: going over your résumé and related experience, asking you to describe how you did this or that.
Cheers
well.. there are lot of negative things about this company, as you rightly said, napoleanic director seems to know little about SDLC.
People who are supposed to be implementing the development methodologies dont know the difference between the agile and waterfall methodologies, anything is agile,many working as BSA or BA dont know the meaning/structure of UCD/BRD.
I wonder how do they claim getting any projects across north America, when they dont even know difference between EST/CST
There are certain individuals who are considered as the Creme Da la creme, have no knowledge about the process or implementation techniques. Arrogant person at the highest position have no respect for knowledge or smart work. if you just align to the guy’s interests then you are in or you are out. Favouritism and Discrimination exists at its highest degree.
I just had an interview yesterday for the Administrative Assistant position that was not even an interview lets just say. Before going to the interview I googled the company and I did see the bad reviews but I said to myself “let me see for myself what this company is all about”.
I should have listened to the reviews and stayed at home, This was a complete waste of time. First off I get there early about half hour and I had to dial “interview” from outside of the glass doors, the so called “HR lady” told my to come back closer to the interview time. I thought that was strange as for other companies they would simply invite you in and you would wait in the reception area. I should have left and never came back when she told me that. No joke, my “interview” lasted no more than 5 minutes. They had me talk about myself my job experiences and then proceeded to tell me nothing about what the job entailed. They asked if I had any questions which I did after that the interview was done. It seemed like when she told me to come back they had a somewhat “mini meeting” about me before hand. Anyone who reads this please stay away from that place it will be a waste of time.