I would be doing this review a disservice if I did not comment on the negatives of this firm.
Work/life balance is absolutely frowned upon. The grind mentality is perpetuated throughout the firm as a mantra. This is coupled with a lack of outside experience on the part of senior management that creates an environment that encourages ineffective and laborious work. As a whole, the company is very much under the pretense of "measure once, cut once." As someone who worked upwards of 70 hour weeks regularly, I can promise that this level of commitment to the firm is not rewarded, nor appreciated. It is simply expected. Once that work week changes due to eventual needs for work/life balance, expect to be shamed. For a firm with a wealth of technology at its fingertips, the inexperience of many senior managers has led to a dependence on outdated policies and procedures. There’s software for compensation planning, record reconciliation, and budget planning. It’s not always Excel.
Nepotism is rampant. Even one of the senior most leadership executives referred to the company as a "family company." Every firm has favoritism issues, but this one blatantly flaunts it. There is a club, and being part of it has nothing to do with meritocracy. Tenure does not equate to experience. Tenure does not equate to subject matter expertise.
Growth opportunities are few and far between. This is due to not only a significant unwillingness to invest in employees, but a great degree of nepotism throughout the firm. Do not come to DiscoverOrg expecting career growth. It is a stepping stone. There can be some lateral moves, but this is often without compensation changes, or flexible incentive structures. It is also the only firm I have worked for that abhorred the idea of conferences. Conferences are for sales representatives, and purely to sell. Thought leaders in sales, marketing, and operations share cutting edge theories and strategies at conferences like TOPO, Dreamforce, and SiriusDecisions. Why is there such an aversion to sending employees to these training opportunities?
This company has ethically concerning behavior. HR violations are plenty. Anyone with a few years of work experience knows that HR teams protect the firm, first and foremost. But, they do this by protecting the employees. This HR team is definitely not doing that. If they were, some of those senior managers would not still be there. That is all I will say on that.
The grind mentality and the nepotism are unfortunately intertwined with the very real career inexperience in the leadership team. For many of the most senior employees, DiscoverOrg is their first job out of college. Once upon a time it was a start-up. But, like every start-up that survives long enough there needs to be a pivot into maturity. This could be happening with the Zoominfo acquisition and rebranding, especially if their leadership team becomes the more dominant strategic force. Occasionally they hire outside experts, true top talent. However, after just over a year these professionals leave. Why? It's due to the insular echo chamber nature of decision making. DiscoverOrg lucks its way into best practices, rather than plans for them strategically. However, if presented with a best practice, there is an unwillingness to pivot, as "DiscoverOrg knows best."
The entire leadership team acted the role of leaders in the tech space, but when it came to listening to some of the most brilliant minds in data and software architecture it always seemed the lawyers knew best.
Do not buy into the equity conversation. DiscoverOrg's first approach to keeping valued employees who find new opportunities is to "promise future growth." They will keep the conversation vague, literally talking about the company's revenue growth rather than the individual. The next play is to offer equity. Equity is has been dangled over more colleagues than I can count. It's all on the promise of a future payout. It's unlikely that the firm is going to go public. Do not plan your life around that equity payout.
