I used to love working at SolidWorks before Dassault Systemes (DS) came in and started to change everything that was great about the company. Unfortunately the changes were not positive and caused a rapid deterioration of the company. To be fair, it’s not the worst place I have ever worked and I enjoy my coworkers (those who have not left the company after the move to Waltham and full DS integration) but in its current state, the Dassault claws are in everything and it is not an easy place to work. SolidWorks suffers from the same fate shared by many companies that have been bought out by larger companies. It has lost what once made it great. It is now incredibly difficult to get your work done because all business processes have been complicated to the point where much of my time is wasted everyday dealing with unnecessary complications brought about by DS policies. Also, many DS policies make being an employee challenging. HR issues are complicated for one example. It’s difficult to figure out who does what in the company is another example. People are constantly changing jobs or leaving the company. Much of the upper management and decisions are made by people in France and the cultural differences (or perhaps the upper management just don't have a clue how to manage a company) are obvious. If you enjoy a hierarchical environment filled with red tape and various inefficiencies, this is the company for you. It is also very difficult to get a promotion or have any chance of furthering your career if you are in certain departments. I feel most badly that it is not the friendly place to work that it once was. I think a lot of people are frustrated and it shows.
