Career stagnation and geographic bias after development center relocation - Staff Software Engineer Diligent Employee Review

2.0
Jun 27, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits including access to courses and workshops. Offices are in central, convenient locations.

Cons

After the development center moved from London to Budapest 4 years ago, I've experienced significant career stagnation despite 11 years with the company. Budapest-based colleagues with less experience have received multiple promotions while I remained in the same role for 4 years. Interesting projects are consistently reassigned from me to Budapest teams after initial proof-of-concept work, often leading to project failures due to inexperienced teams handling complex work. There's clear favoritism toward the Budapest office, creating a closed circle that tend to exclude remote workers. Management seems to prioritize geographic location over experience and capability.

Explore other reviews about Diligent

2.0
Mar 11, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The product is market-leading, and the space is genuinely interesting. There's no shortage of smart, capable people at Diligent. A lot of talented managers exist within the org who could do more if given the room.

Cons

Direction changes constantly — sometimes it feels quarter over quarter. The result is widespread burnout and an inability to execute. Senior leaders rarely push back on the CEO, which means teams absorb every strategic shift without warning or context. HR leadership prioritizes serving the executive team over the broader employee population. The HR team is stretched thin and operates more like a compliance function than a culture or development partner. (Turnover within HR leadership has been notable.) Pay is below market. The equity program is opaque, poorly managed, and functions more as a retention mechanism than a genuine benefit (with no clear path to liquidity). There's a meaningful gap between what the company says it stands for—especially around employee experience—and what it actually delivers internally.

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Diligent Response
2mo
Thank you for taking the time to share such thoughtful feedback about your experience. We truly appreciate you recognizing the strengths of our product and the talent across our team, and we’re glad to hear the space feels interesting and compelling. We also recognize that as a company focused on governance, risk and compliance, that it’s critical to hold ourselves to the same high standards internally. Through our monthly pulse surveys, we listen to our team, learn and actively work to strengthen any areas of feedback from alignment to transparency, or accountability across our leadership teams. In fact, one of our OKRs is focused solely on ensuring we have an empowered and accountable team, which we rally around as an organization. We appreciate other sources of feedback like yours, as it is an important part of that effort. Our People team is committed to supporting an elevated employee experience and continuously improving how we listen, respond, and evolve. While we won’t always get everything right on the first try, we are highly focused on continuing to iterate and making meaningful progress to ensure our actions reflect our values. We encourage continued feedback and appreciate you sharing your perspective. If you’d like to provide any additional context, please feel free to reach out at: HRConfidential@diligent.com
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