Corel Corporation
Climbed the ladder!
Sales Manager (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 28 April 2017
I loved working for this company, I started as an inside sales rep, had an amazing mentor and was afforded the ability to grow into managing a sales team that consistently exceeded quota.
Pros
amazing mentor and opportunity to grow
Cons
company was sold!
good culture. good future not guaranteed
Customer Service (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 4 August 2016
fine place to work. lots of autonomy mixed with bursts of top down micromanagement and the looming threat of quarterly layoffs
Pros
autonomy
Cons
low pay relative to industry
It was a creative place to work
Graphic Designer/Multimedia Specialist (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 25 April 2016
At Corel, I had learned a great many ways to be creative, they used you but were fair about it. The experiences that I acquired there are life long.
Pros
Travel
Cons
long hours due to deadlines
Office culture needs improvement.
IT Services Associate (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 3 December 2015
Overall, the company had a self-entitlement culture of the management spectrum and some employees could make doing even some of the simplest tasks much more difficult.
Salary compensation was often on the lower spectrum of other high tech companies an in some cases could have a difference in the range of $10,000 to $20,000.
Some staff in management positions weren't a good fit for those roles, especially when they lacked the experience and/or understanding of the jobs their staff did on a day-to-day basis.
There was an issue of favouritism within the company that saw some employees treated differently by middle-management and some management felt they deserved special treatment compared to some of their own colleagues often making day-to-day activities challenging. This was compounded by the benefit of the doubt being given to someone in a management position over a regular employee when issues arose. Better management training is definitely required.
Advancement within the company was dependent on the department and the management structure for that department. Favouritism had more of a role to play in your advancement than your ability or the quality of the job you did within the company as well.
Ironically, the Exec and C-Level Exec staff when I was there were far more laid back and respected the employees as much as they could given circumstances but have shown to keep a person's dignity when restructuring would occur. Job loss packages were often generous and would provide some work-placement assistance.
The company could do better if they did away more... with the clique and self-entitlement issues that occur as well as ensured that middle-management and director level positions remained accountable for their actions towards employees instead of placating behaviour because of their positions. This along with what seemed to be yearly restructuring often affected employee moral. less
Salary compensation was often on the lower spectrum of other high tech companies an in some cases could have a difference in the range of $10,000 to $20,000.
Some staff in management positions weren't a good fit for those roles, especially when they lacked the experience and/or understanding of the jobs their staff did on a day-to-day basis.
There was an issue of favouritism within the company that saw some employees treated differently by middle-management and some management felt they deserved special treatment compared to some of their own colleagues often making day-to-day activities challenging. This was compounded by the benefit of the doubt being given to someone in a management position over a regular employee when issues arose. Better management training is definitely required.
Advancement within the company was dependent on the department and the management structure for that department. Favouritism had more of a role to play in your advancement than your ability or the quality of the job you did within the company as well.
Ironically, the Exec and C-Level Exec staff when I was there were far more laid back and respected the employees as much as they could given circumstances but have shown to keep a person's dignity when restructuring would occur. Job loss packages were often generous and would provide some work-placement assistance.
The company could do better if they did away more... with the clique and self-entitlement issues that occur as well as ensured that middle-management and director level positions remained accountable for their actions towards employees instead of placating behaviour because of their positions. This along with what seemed to be yearly restructuring often affected employee moral. less
Pros
Work/Life balance & flexibility, Bonuses
Cons
Salary, middle-management
Great start to my career
Software Quality Assurance Specialist (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 14 September 2015
Corel was my first job in my testing career and I learned a lot from the great people I worked with. With a diverse portfolio of applications I had the opportunity to work on several different projects during my tenure. I was blessed with favorable managers that allowed me the flexibility to work without someone always looking over my shoulder. I was permitted to suggest new ways to innovate within the testing team and I was valued.
Pros
Flexible hours, great people
Cons
Compensation
Intense, stressful
Automated Translation Coordinator (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 28 May 2015
Great product produced by intense schedules. Lots of late nights for months on end until product released, then a break until the next push.
Pros
Great "thank you" events for staff
Cons
Intense atmosphere
The Creative culture
Senior Graphic Designer / Illustrator / (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 1 February 2015
working with a large group of designers and copy writers to achieve best product.
Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking, Digital Artwork, Technical Illustration, UI graphic design, extensive private and public industry experience, strong interpersonal skills, vast conceptual capacity, capable of combining traditional art with current technologies, Strong team management skills, positive professional work
Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking, Digital Artwork, Technical Illustration, UI graphic design, extensive private and public industry experience, strong interpersonal skills, vast conceptual capacity, capable of combining traditional art with current technologies, Strong team management skills, positive professional work
Pros
Learning new creative things every day
Cons
watching mismanagement in large format and the personal loss of employees
great people, great products, uncertain job security
Quality assurance specialist (Current Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 9 January 2015
Love my job. I work with a great team and have an amazing manager. Very flexible hours, i come in and out pretty much as I please as long as I get my work done and I attend meetings. Flexibility to work from home when needed too.
Lost of layoffs every year makes for a tough morale overall. Seems like no one makes much money and no merit increases for a long time. A bit of a disconnect from executive team in that regard.
Lost of layoffs every year makes for a tough morale overall. Seems like no one makes much money and no merit increases for a long time. A bit of a disconnect from executive team in that regard.
No respect for their employees
Customer Service Specialist (Former Employee) – Ottawa, Ont – 8 January 2014
It was a nice place to work. Had my own cubicle with computer and phone. Co-workers were great. The supervisor was also great. Very understanding. Had to make a certain amount for the company every quarter or risk loosing job. Risk losing job every time they buy out another company. Treat you like a criminal once the layoff is complete, as in, they send everyone else into a meeting so they don't see the layoff in progress so to keep moral up, they watch you as you pack your things and they escort you off the premises. And they think a week before Christmas is the best time to do this.
Also, they refuse to give references or acknowledgment of employment to previous employees searching for new work.
Also, they refuse to give references or acknowledgment of employment to previous employees searching for new work.
Pros
Bonuses if you surpass the quarter minimum
Cons
High risk of loss of employment
Cool Canadian company as good as MS Office
Software Developer/Quality Assurance Specialist (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 10 December 2013
Developed test cases for WordPerfect QA department
Create macros to automate testing process
Code maintenance/bug fixes
Fixed numerous dialogue boxes
Setup, configured & maintained testing systems
Create macros to automate testing process
Code maintenance/bug fixes
Fixed numerous dialogue boxes
Setup, configured & maintained testing systems
Pros
Fun company, awesome team building events
great team(Paradox DB Suite) Development & Testing
Software Tester and developer (Former Employee) – Ottawa, ON – 10 June 2013
Great experience in team oriented enviroment even though pjt mngr was of little help; having no real understanding of the project/software(his position/title was purely honorary.
Pros
gave small business and private citizens a useful product at a resonable price
Cons
No job security
Great people, great learning experience!
Marketing research intern (Current Employee) – Ottawa, On – 22 May 2012
My responsibilities include coding open-ended questions from in-product-marketing survey’s that were distributed through Corel software. I helped calculate Net Promoter scores for each product and along with other data; I created presentations to
deliver the messages from the surveys.
deliver the messages from the surveys.