* DISCLAIMER * Obviously this is going to be a negative review between the ratings I gave and the fact that this review itself is much longer in the cons than the pros. TLDR: don’t fall for the beautiful marketing fliers and recruiting lines. In the words of the Eagles in Hotel California “Such a lovely place…but you can never leave.”
The Long Timers and Technology:
If they try to sell you anything about RSU (Restricted stock units) for the upcoming IPO (if it ever happens), keep in mind that some people have been at SAS for DECADES and that any potential money you might receive is minuscule.
The people who have been there forever tend to fall into one of three boats
A) Are completely checked out and going through the motions to have an easy job with a good salary and make it to retirement age
B) Are entrenched in the company that they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. The glory days of SAS are “still going” and it’s still the “best place to work.” They are completely ignorant of what it is like for younger people/people recently joined. They are also very ingrained in their ways which is why the technology has only gotten slower, less intuitive, and overall worse over the past few years (Viya 3.5, Viya 4+ all are terrible and the customers did not want them — they were just created because one man (the old COO) wanted to change the tech without an actual business need to drive that change and decision). If you don’t believe me, look at the underlying technology/architecture of 3.5 & 4. The architecture is completely different from anything SAS had created before. It might seem innovative, but when Viya was released, people at the release event (customers and SAS employees alike) started whispering that no one wanted it and the main features that they did want weren’t even available in the new Viya releases. This is a complete 180 from what SAS did previously in gathering customer opinions and preferences to drive the vision of SAS. While you may make something and then try to sell it, at least make it good enough to sell. Also, Viya 3 started at 3 because they knew NO ONE would want to buy the first iteration of the software for version 1 and 2 (ex Viya 1 and 2 were never released). Legal? Yes. Unethical? That’s for you to decide. And on that note, Viya 3 and 4 have completely different architectures, built from the ground up. A complete overhaul does not warrant iterating to another version release; that’s a whole new release when the base foundation is overhauled. People on the product/software engineering side literally LEFT SAS when the old COO was once head of Research and Development. Those same employees came back after he moved to a different position. Only 9.4 was good technology recently but even that release’s foundation hadn’t changed for many MANY years.
C) Are normal people who aren’t wearing rose-tinted glasses but also don’t want to do anything about it either
Conclusion: there is nothing wrong with working someplace for many years. Just recognize that just because other people have worked there forever, it doesn’t give them an excuse to try to force you to drink the same (now festering) coolaid they drank years ago. And just because you worked somewhere forever doesn’t mean you should be promoted over actual competent people.
Culture:
For a company that prides itself for diversity and inclusion, they protect very unprofessional and inappropriate long-time employees over upholding their values. I had many experiences with people who were blatantly rude, aggressive, inappropriate, and combative to other coworkers and contractors in the presence of management who could act on such behaviors. The amount of political posturing is ridiculous and he who speaks loudest and most frequently tends to be the voice followed.
Offboarding/Onboarding/Projects:
For being a company that helps other companies streamline and make sense of their data, they can’t practice what they preach. Off boarding was a disjoined mess (this is where the Hotel California reference makes sense). HR did not contact me until shortly before leaving despite giving ample notice and multiple people were sending me conflicting information as for how to off board. No one seemed to have any clue what was needed and it was so generic. Despite having an army of HR people, it was unprofessional, confusing, and vague. Nothing seemed standardized, more so like whatever your HR partner wanted was what would happen. In another area, their entire system in general is just confusing and inconsistent. On boarding to projects is a complete mess, having to dig through emails and links to links to links. No one seems to have any clue and no one wants to also take any accountability or responsibility to fix anything. During the time I was there, all the projects seemed to be dumpster fires. Upper management is completely hands off until the project goes into the red and then expects everyone to bend over backwards to fix things that they would’ve noticed very easily if they were any bit as involved as they claimed to be. Overall project culture tends to be negative and political. The projects themselves are disorganized even beyond the convoluted onboarding process to them. IT for SAS as whole is a mess and results in extensive time delays for projects. They claim to be “one SAS” but I’ve never experienced such animosity between groups and business divisions anywhere else like I experienced at SAS. Stay away!
