Frontend Developer at PortalTech Reply (PTR). Stagnant technology and unsuitable procedure - Frontend Developer Reply Employee Review

1.0
Dec 22, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you're a beginner or mid-level developer you can probably thrive here, or even just stay and exist until you know what you want to do. The company has a niche in the market for delivering cheap software for clients who don't necessarily have a clear idea of what they want, but will take what they can get.

Cons

PTR lacks communication and organisation. The culture runs counter to innovation and promotes blame-gaming. It took at least two years for dev ops to install NodeJS after the company had been developing multiple SPA solutions. During that time developers were forced to commit minified code into the repo, slowing down development. We later got into trouble for slow development. People had to wait weeks for an email response when requesting holiday and manually update a confluence document because they don't use things like leaveplanner. The attitude of backend developers seemed to be astoundingly non-holistic. They would change the API format without notice and somehow it was the frontend's fault when it broke. The complaints procedure encourages blame-gaming over fixing actual issues. I was sent anonymous complaints which were too vague for me to do anything about. After spending months running around fighting fires because developers wouldn't follow standards, I received such a complaint. Apparently I was "refactoring things I shouldn't". Coincidentally, this was shortly after the guy who happened to demand that we inform him when we refactor things (rather than look at the code in the PRs and make comments in stash like normal) was fired for not doing PRs properly. I asked to move projects (since I was clearly on to a loser and they'd stopped using me anyway) and told there was nowhere to go. 9 months later I was assigned to a total mess of a project which was apparently 10 months behind schedule. So when I'd asked to move, this project was a month behind schedule and based on the code history was in sore need of a frontend developer, but they still wanted to keep me on the project where they weren't using me. I amassed a lot of stories like this after working there for about 1.5 years. They didn't want to improve things at the rate they needed to and I refused to become apathetic enough to continue working there so I left.

Explore other reviews about Reply

5.0
Mar 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Supportive environment; salary is above the average

Cons

I cannot think of any cons

avatar
Reply Response
2mo
Dear former colleague, thank you for taking the time to share your positive experience with Reply. Through its network of specialized companies, Reply provides support to some of Europe's leading industrial groups in Telco and Media, Industry and Services, Banks and Insurance, and Public Administration to define and develop business models tailored to the new paradigms of Big Data, Cloud Computing, Digital Media, and the Internet of Things. Reply's services include consulting, system integration, and digital services. Thank you again for your review, we have been pleased to read your positive experience. We really wish you the best in your career path. And if you want to keep in touch, have a look at the #LifeAtReply hashtag on Instagram and keep following Reply U on social media.
5.0
Nov 17, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

nice people, learn a lot

Cons

in-person requirement, un-developed intern program.

avatar
Reply Response
4mo
Dear Replyer, thank you for taking the time to write about your positive Reply experience. Through its network of specialized companies, Reply provides support to some of Europe's leading industrial groups in Telco and Media, Industry and Services, Banks and Insurance, and Public Administration to define and develop business models tailored to the new paradigms of Big Data, Cloud Computing, Digital Media, and the Internet of Things. Reply's services include consulting, system integration, and digital services. Thank you again for your review: we have been pleased to read about your positive experience. We genuinely wish you the best in your career journey at Reply and invite you to follow ReplyU and #LifeAtReply on social media.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All