Was once a great employer in the area - Software Engineer Sentry Employee Review

2.0
Aug 5, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Strong 401k program with generous company match, plus end of the year profit sharing. Several good options to choose from in the portfolio as well. - While they don't have anything crazy, they do have competitive benefits in certain areas. Vision is pretty good, with both health and dental being fairly industry standard. PTO is also industry standard but competitive. - If you like working in an office, both the headquarters and the new claims building have a nice cafe and cafeteria. Weight rooms/fitness centers are also conveniently located on-site (unfortunately those perks do to extend to most of the regional offices). - Large IT department with decent support from peers. Use of cutting edge technology and development processes, ahead of most of its competitors when it comes to the area of information technology and transitioning to the cloud. Plenty of cool tools that a dev can play around with.

Cons

- Top heavy management, with the occasional clear show of favoritism. There are a lot of family and close friends here, which can be great at times with the comradery, but detrimental when running a business or trying to lead a team. There are a handful of amazing managers, but they can be few and far between. - Terrible maternity/paternity leave policy, one of the worst that I've seen. Required to burn through all your PTO first, and then extremely minimal support after that, leaves those who have a child in the early months with a very long and stressful remainder of the year ahead of them. - Salaries used to be pretty good for the area, but have stagnated and greatly fallen behind the national average. Cost of living is obviously not as high as a major city, but their wages are not competitive anymore for the level of work and time expected of you. - IT and software development are usually pretty stressful fields to begin with, but Sentry really knows how to run people 110% all of the time. It can depend on the team, but there's generally a lot of high stress and burn out, especially when trying to cram nearly impossible projects in a short timeline with not enough people to help. - Not flexible on remote work. The current approach is hybrid (three days in, with the option of two days out), but it has been hinted that may only be temporary with a push to eventually return to the office completely. There is no longer an option to work from home full time, unfortunately. - No student loan assistance/tuition reimbursement. No bonuses for certifications. No incentive to continue your education. - Got rid of the pension program with no plans of bringing it back. - Lackluster merit increases and yearly bonus, despite strong company growth. Sentry sees a lot of success, but its workers only get a sliver of a crumb of the pie. You can have glowing reviews and exceed all of your goals every year, but still only be given a meager raise (that's not even half of inflation) and not be on a track to get promoted until several more years down the road.

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Sentry Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I’m glad you enjoyed many of the wide-ranging benefits you received while working at Sentry, along with having the opportunity to work with our industry-leading technology. We consistently assess our benefits offered to associates and make changes to meet the changing needs of our team. We believe our hybrid work model allows us to share ideas, learn from one another, and resolve issues together, while also enjoying the benefits of working remotely. Thanks again for providing your feedback. Jim Frank – Chief Information Officer

Explore other reviews about Sentry

5.0
Apr 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

work life balance is great

Cons

pay is below national average

4.0
May 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

hybrid, very good benefits, mostly good work life balance

Cons

on call sucks so bad, more flexible work from home schedule would be nice

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