Questrade reviews

-Talent is wasted by managers that have never written a line of code in their lives. -Questrade is a financial services company that is new to software development. -Projects are rarely completed on time or on budget. Project management is completely ad hoc. -Technical teams often work on weekends without compensation or days in lieu. -QA teams are understaffed and see very high turnover. -Poor technical management. Key decision-makers and stakeholders are not technical people. -Managers are unable to assess the skills and abilities of the technical staff. -Surprisingly few opportunities to learn about the field of investing. -Issues with morale across the entire company. -Nepotism is prevalent across the company. -The company is unable to learn from past mistakes and continues to make the same ones, over and over again. The last point is especially problematic. The company culture at Questrade is one that does not deal well with mistakes. Rather than accepting fault for a bad decision, managers seek out a scapegoat in order to protect themselves. This has the secondary effect of delaying important decisions for as long as possible. The project I worked on has been in active development for over 4 years and was expected to launch 2 years ago. If one is moderately skilled at software development, they would do well to steer clear of Questrade. And for those, like myself, who made the honest mistake of joining the company--no doubt with the best of intentions--it's time to dust off those resumes and go work for a real software company. The feeling of wonder and excitement you will experience when you release working code to real customers is like no other.

Leadership Communication is a Joke: The company holds regular livestream “updates” with leadership, but don’t expect candor or insight. Executives read off clearly pre-written scripts in a robotic, disconnected manner. It feels more like damage control than actual communication. Any hard questions are dodged or filtered. Return to Office: The company enforced a rigid RTO policy with little regard for individual circumstances, despite previously promoting flexibility. Whether you had a six-hour round-trip commute, health concerns, or legitimate personal needs, it made no difference. Their so-called “exception process” felt performative, lacking genuine leadership, empathy, or thoughtful consideration. Job Security & Morale: Questrade shows little hesitation in letting people go, regardless of their performance. Morale is low, trust is broken, and it’s clear employees are treated as expendable. The company has repeatedly assured teams that a given layoff would be the “last,” only to quietly continue with additional rounds of shadow layoffs. The result is a culture of fear, instability, and disillusionment. Culture: For all the talk about "values" and "caring for people," my experience shows otherwise. When it actually matters, when you’re grieving, struggling, or raising concerns, they retreat behind policy and PR type responses. It's all optics.