Horrible Experience - Software Engineer Codazen Employee Review

1.0
Mar 20, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None to mention. Horrible startup company that I have ever worked for.

Cons

For Job Seekers: Codazen, formerly known as MCW Software is a real horrible place to work. Michael Merchant ( the so called principal consultant and CEO) runs this place like a 'mom and pop's local shop'. There is absolutely zero corporate culture in this place. Michael is very very mean person and he can never be a mentor to anyone. I recommend not to take a job here. Candidates will get nothing from here. Don't expect to grow here, there's nothing much here as Michael and his family takes over everything. There are lot of other companies that are looking for talents like you and that are willing to pay you well and respect your work and provide you a better work life balance. Look beyond! For Clients: This place has only one experienced resource and that's Michael himself. All the rest are interns that are paid peanuts for working on the real time projects. Do not take a chance here. There are a lot of other matured companies in Orange County that does much better job.

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Codazen Response
11y
Thank you for providing feedback and I am sorry that your employment experience has not met your expectations. We are always recruiting software engineers at all experience levels and have several engineers with 5-10+ years of experience. We run a popular summer internship program with top universities such as UC Irvine and UC Berkeley. For those employees that are not consulting in the field, during this time, there are a lot of interns in the office. Several of those former interns applied themselves and are now Codazen Consultants working alongside our Senior Consultants at top companies such as Kelley Blue Book and Oculus VR, a Facebook company. Codazen alumni have worked for companies such as Bechtel, KBB, Western Digital, Esurance, Sign Now, and Terradatum. Our organization will never be perfect. There will always be challenges. That is why my door has always been open to feedback, concerns, mentoring -- anything. In the future, I would encourage you to raise these concerns directly. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden

Explore other reviews about Codazen

5.0
Mar 31, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really great environment and people

Cons

Need to acquire more clients. Too dependent on Meta for livelihood

2.0
Oct 13, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The employees were generally nice and fun to work with at first, but over time the culture declined as more good people left or were laid off. They have snacks.

Cons

Because the company is an agency, projects often shift based on client demands. Upper management rarely pushes back and this results in frequent last-minute changes and a poor work-life balance for primarily the developers and engineers. Compensation and career growth opportunities are extremely limited. If you’re experienced, you’ll likely find better pay and balance elsewhere.

3
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