I met someone recently who told me that he used to work for Trilogy Software and that it’s considered the elite in it’s field; if you work there you can easily get an interview at Google, Microsoft, anywhere you want. He didn’t seem like an obnoxious, boastful sort of guy so I took him at face value and figured eventually I’d find out the straight dope.
So rather than waiting I’m actively throwing the question out there: Is Trilogy Software really a special place to work?
I’ve never heard of them, and I’ve been a developer for MSFT for 15 years. I regularly interview for developer positions, and I can guarantee you that there is no company you may have worked for that would make you “easily get an interview” for me.
At any rate, reading about them on their website, they appear to be a 3rd party business solutions company focusing mostly on database solutions for auto companies. Looking at their Customer link, I see neither MSFT nor Google on their Customer Directory list. Our IT group is internal, so we would never use them for anything anyway.
That simply can’t be true. Their list of clients includes many notable companies but it is pretty short. I have worked in IT for 11 years and I have done project management by myself for more prestigious companies for about half that number of listed companies. I have never heard of them. Trilogy may be the best company to work for ever and may offer kick-ass training but the vast majority of people in any IT company would just nod their head when it is mentioned. All industries have preferred software vendors but that doesn’t mean that anyone outside of those industries would know or care much about them.
Complete bullshit.
Thanks, this is very helpful.
I’ve heard similar things from headhunters. The headhunter I used to land my job 14 years ago said, “They call that company ‘SoftCo University’. Once you’ve worked there for a few years you can write your own ticket at any other company. Blah, blah, more bullshit…”
So I asked during the interview, “Does anyone call this company ‘SoftCo University’?” Everyone I asked said, “What are you talking about?” and then we had a good laugh about what dicks headhunters are.
I think its headhunter code for “I know this place has a reputation as a sweatshop, but I have to find someone stupid enough to work there anyway.”
Sounds like a “churn and burn” IT shop. Or it could be he’s just dilusional. I’ve worked for companies that are very cult like. The employees tend to get a highly inflated sense of how great it is to work there, how respected it is in the industry and even how successful the company or industry actually is. And once you leave you’re like “who were those guys”?
Maybe he meant on a regional basis. Trilogy is considered fairly highly in the Austin area and might help you get interviews at Austin branches of Microsoft or Google, but I don’t know that their reputation spreads much beyond the local area.
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I’m glad you added that. As the saying goes, often the truth is in the middle.
I remember going to their company presentation in college, 10 years ago. They spent a lot of time talking about company lore and reputation, and very little time talking about their business model and case studies. IMHO this is a indicative of the type of company that msmith537 describes. Was your friend a new recruit? He may have been regurgitating what he heard in the recruiting process.
Again my info is 10 years old, but it’s free to post.
That is correct. If you’ve ever read any of those James C. Collins books like Good to Great or Built to Last, they specifically talk a lot about creating a corporate mythology. Basically they create all this folklore around the officers and the company and whatnot.