software engineer

support technician

sales consultant

customer success manager

senior technical product manager

Applied Systems

LOW PAY If you want to go anywhere and are not best friends with supervisors forget it Favoritism is rampant Supervisors don't know how to manage their employees and do nothing about complaints besides come up with excuses. Raises are a joke. Seriously... they consider $500 a raise. Lies, tell you they don't have money to give raises, but manage to buy up multi million dollar companies, or renovate bathrooms,… 


Raises are extremely low ($250 to 500) to none at all. Starting pay is amazingly low. When the subject is brought up employees are told it's because of the area, as though your talent varies upon location. Speaking of location, it's in the middle of nowhere, close to nothing good, often referred to as "the ghetto". Breaks do not exist. 30 mins for lunch is all you get. The walking path around the building is just a tease, since no one has time to walk on it anyway. Rewards are 10 dollar gift cards for EXCEPTIONAL work. You heard me, 10 dollars, perhaps 1-2 times a year. Meetings about the employee satisfaction surveys resulted in morale being lower than ever, with management basically saying "we don't care". Some departments were told there is zero chance for promotions or advancement unless you quit to go elsewhere. What you start doing will be the same until you leave. It doesn't get better it gets harder. It's like if you started flipping burgers at Mcdonalds, and later were promoted to manager, only you still did all the duties of a burger flipper in addition to management duties. There are NO perks for being experienced. Most of the experience has fled anyway so that's a moot point. Changes to reviews document every conceivable aspect of working (being late, sick time, staying late, covering shifts, you name it) and are posted in 'scoreboard' form to pit against your co-workers. Veiled threats are emailed on a daily basis about workload waiting, calls holding, and "take this call or ELSE". Workload is demanding, constant, and numbing. Employees must request a pass from existing work, to do other required work. Depending on department, work experience may not even be helpful. Some products written and designed in 20+ year old technology which functions illogically and never improved.

Applied Systems is a great place to start your career if you need an entry level job and have little to no industry experience. After a few years, it is best to leave. Most of the experienced employees are underpayed by a large margin. At one point, 46% below median average was the average rate for the department I work in.

The buddy system rules when promotion time comes and you will watch underachievers get promoted through the ranks while seeing the best experts get shackled to their current roles because they do a great job in it. To me, this practice is backwards, as you want the best to lead the rest. Predictably, this has led to group think among management.

If you stick with the company, you may find that you will receive more job duties while dealing with potentially stagnant pay increases, and possibly no movement in your job title. Eventually, you will train entry level hires who will came into the company with the same or a higher salary than you currently make.

On the flip side, the benefits are pretty solid. All benefits for full time employees start at day one and you begin accruing vacation and sick time immediately. Base vacation time started at 10 days a year and increases every 5 years until you are at 20 days of sick a year if I am not mistaken. Sick time is earned at a rate of 4 hours a month and can accumulate to a max of 200 hours total. There are also some discounts through local businesses available, along with some other nationwide discounts.

I was never denied a request to take time off, even if it meant going into the negative where I had to earn the time back within the calendar year. 

Most of the immediate coworkers are good people. While the company is not the greatest, you will become part of the Applied family and work with great coworkers.

It was not a bad place to work, but I would not consider it to be a good one either. Rather, it is a stepping stone in career advancement and a chance to work at a large company with some job security while you learn the ropes.

If you have ANY other opportunities, avoid working here.
I gave everything I could to this place, asked to be paid fairly, and if I couldn't be paid fairly, at least have my nights and weekends back (since Applied obviously didn't value them as much as I did). Instead, I got ostracized and eventually laid off.
Applied seriously understaffs critical positions of need with the lowest bidders, expects miracles, then treats employees poorly when they don't happen, as if it's the employees' fault. I did my own job and the work of two other people for nearly a year, and everyone just expected me to forget about it. I got a nominal promotion with nowhere near a proportionate raise, while I saw executives get paid crazy amounts for pretty much no-show jobs, and give all their friends equally cushy jobs for equally crazy salaries and perks. I also saw rules and policies that were supposed to apply to everyone routinely flouted by executives and lifers, but you can bet there were strictly (and selectively) enforced against lower-level employees. 
Applied exceeded revenue expectations every quarter and every year I was there, but the gains were constantly eaten up by execs and shareholders. Non-management might get a couple hundred dollars in raises, along with more to do each time the company expanded, while the executives went away to "retreats" in Aspen, Sedona or other resorts, showed up in brand new luxury cars,  had Applied foot the bill for huge second or third homes so they could be closer to offices they barely even visited, etc. But there was never any money for the rank-and-file, no matter how much they had just exhausted themselves and neglecting their social lives helping bring in all those millions.
I had thought I was the only one Applied treated this heartlessly, but these other reviews make it seem like it's standard operating procedure.

Where to begin. Low pay for the industry, don't expect to make a killing here unless you still live with your parents and have no bills. Insurance package is weak and expensive I think it's just over Obamacare minimum requirements. Raises are a complete joke, $500 a year, let that sink in less than $10 a week they consider a raise. They will tell you that they don't have the money to give out a better raise then weeks later buy a new company, or remodel some part of the building or hire one of the CEOs buddies for a newly created position making 6 figures. No bonuses of any kind unless you are management or sales. You will only receive negative feedback from your superiors. The dept. that handles almost all of the calls that come in are the lowest paid of all departments. The support department has the highest turnover rate of any other department here. In one year it is not unusual for the entire dept to "flip". There is no future unless you kiss up to the right people. Management only follows their rules and guidelines when it suits them to do so. Most of the supervisors have no idea how the program even works and have not even worked on the program or took a call in 10 years, the most recent supervisor has less than a year on the phones working on the software. Management plays favorites and will give those people special opportunities not given to people who deserve it.  People who dont deserve promotions are given it over tenured employees with more qualifications.  Supervisors basically have no job requirements and aren't required to follow their schedule. Some supervisors focus all their efforts into food parties rather than work, and have lower techs do their jobs for them. Management has no reality of what it actually going on underneath them, most of their focus goes into customer retention instead of fixing why customers leave us.

Where to begin. Low pay for the industry, don't expect to make a killing here unless you still live with your parents and have no bills. Insurance package is weak and expensive I think it's just over Obamacare minimum requirements. Raises are a complete joke, $500 a year, let that sink in less than $10 a week they consider a raise. They will tell you that they don't have the money to give out a better raise then weeks later buy a new company, or remodel some part of the building or hire one of the CEOs buddies for a newly created position making 6 figures. No bonuses of any kind unless you are management or sales. You will only receive negative feedback from your superiors. The dept. that handles almost all of the calls that come in are the lowest paid of all departments. The support department has the highest turnover rate of any other department here. In one year it is not unusual for the entire dept to "flip". There is no future unless you kiss up to the right people. Management only follows their rules and guidelines when it suits them to do so. Most of the supervisors have no idea how the program even works and have not even worked on the program or took a call in 10 years, the most recent supervisor has less than a year on the phones working on the software. Management plays favorites and will give those people special opportunities not given to people who deserve it.  People who dont deserve promotions are given it over tenured employees with more qualifications.  Supervisors basically have no job requirements and aren't required to follow their schedule. Some supervisors focus all their efforts into food parties rather than work, and have lower techs do their jobs for them. Management has no reality of what it actually going on underneath them, most of their focus goes into customer retention.

Typical Day

I have a daily status meeting with my agile team to discuss what tasks we worked on/completed yesterday, what the plan is for today and if there are any obstacles that are preventing me from completing my daily tasks.  I look in the team queue to see if there are any defects fixes completed that require testing.  If there are, I review the documentation and plan the best way to fix it.  Will we need a testing plan/test case put in place, will I need a special environment, or would an automated script help me to test this, this usually depends on the amount of data I will need to have available to thoroughly test the defect fix.  Once I have my plan in place, I will test the defect, add notes to validate my testing and move on to either another defect fix.  If there are no other defect fixes, I will proceed to enhancement requests, feature work, or writing more automated scripts or test cases for tasks that will be coming down in the near future.    This preparation may include review technical specs or design documentation or organizing meetings to discuss specifications.

My team has been on a special project regarding a fragile piece of functionality within our software, which required my organization of test cases and workflows that needed to be tested; as well as being the technical recourse for the specifications for this functionality.    This project has taken up most of time for the past few months.

This applies to sales department, but there is a universal theme throughout the company. 

there are great bonds built amongst your team of peers and if you're in the south suburbs the commute is easy.  The checks always clear. Other than that there is little upside to working for Applied. 

The CEO boasts about company profits, but none seems to ever trickle down to the worker bees. Pay is low by all accounts and even if you're started any where near what the market pays, they will make it up with $300-$500 raises every other year, so either way you lose.The benefits are standard but expensive.  

What they consider culture is day old bagels every Tuesday and a on grounds company BBQ. 

Your workload is always increasing but pay isn't. Management takes every opportunity to belittle you in department meetings.You are micromanaged and treated like a child. The inside sales gig is basically a telemarketing role. 

While your goal is to sell, you spend the better part of your day taking calls from dissatisfied customers and in most cases they end up waking because quality and support is lacking. Why? Because the turnover is high and they too are paid poorly so there isn't much motivation to do an outstanding job.  

Overall, I don't recommend if you have any other options.

The company started out as a privately owned company with a friendly, hometown attitude. It is now owned by a corporation and not a good place to work. For the kind of work you end up doing, starting salaries are way below other companies. Raises are minuscule, if you even get one. There are benefits, all of which you pay a portion, although the health insurance is poor to moderate coverage at best. You do not get breaks. The company only allows what is legally required, a 30 minute, unpaid lunch. Management is detached from the workers and although they say they want your honest opinion about your job, it ends up putting a permanent mark on your head. They've instituted what many consider a "Survivor" style evaluation process where every month, the lowest rated employee in a group or department is identified. There is a "watchdog" group keeping track of everything you do and have a nearly "zero tolerance" policy on misconduct, job performance and even employee mistakes. You often get stuck with something difficult to take care of, causing you to stay late and you don't have much choice in the matter. Trainings and meetings can be scheduled before your start time and you're required to attend. The only positive thing I ended up liking are the coworkers and gratitude from customers.

Awful management. 
Micromanage.  The management would approach the developer almost daily and make him cry by telling him how worthless he is.  He would also go around the office screaming all the time(not a hard job to do). He did try with me twice(when the jr. developer was on vacation) but my work was finished and proved him wrong so he got off of me. 

The senior management is also not very bright.  He got the position because everyone has left.  Cheap pay.  Long hours.  Everyone stays silent because this guy is the one you don't want to be around.  Full of lies.  Sure, that happens but he does it 100% of the time and takes credit for things that he doesn't even do.  Basically, the worst place you can end up. People leaving all the time also because of this guy.  

The employees were cool but most of them are gone now.  Not a good future for the company either. Dead end. They even had their annual meeting and they were rated so bad they told employees to go on glassdoor to rate them 5 stars. Sad.  The Phoenix location though, that's why you will always see an opening.  

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED and good luck.

First thing is first, I have enjoyed my time at Applied Systems. They do train you in what you need to know for your position. Supervisors and your coworkers will try to help you however they can, the environment promotes talking with other people in other departments. I have learned many things about Microsoft Windows, Remote desktop environments, Active Directory etc. That part of your knowledge has to be learned on your own though, as they do not provide any further education outside of your initial training. And that can be the hardest part of the job, if you are a person that cannot learn or research on your own. Otherwise, the salary range for ANY position in the company is below average of what you'll find in the area. And it's hard to move to other positions or departments due to the culture of the company as well. You'll probably stuck in one position for about 5 years before you can even consider trying to move somewhere else. This is why it's better to use a position there as experience and continue forward, the people there are nice but there's nothing outside of that.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$67,667 per year
Support technician 6 salaries reported	$50,333 per year
Sales consultant 16 salaries reported	$119,375 per year
Customer success manager 11 salaries reported	$84,091 per year
Senior technical product manager 9 salaries reported	$122,222 per year

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