rating for Blue Nile

Nice People, Low Technical Bar and Too Political posted on October 10, 2009

On the whole, the IT shop is improving from where it's been historically, but the software architecture is a mess and the politics are way out of hand for a company so small.

Everyone has either been there forever or for just a few years, and most of the key technical leaders would get laughed out of the room at a typical Amazon interview. There's been a cycle of new people coming in, trying to push for change, then getting frustrated and moving on, which means the place is really political for such a small shop. We're talking 30 people from the VP on down to the desktop support people and maybe 10 developers across all the different teams. The old guard hoard knowledge and are slow to dole out real responsibilities to new people, partly because I don't think they know how, partly to prevent their past work from being exposed to criticism. Other than the VP, the IT managers have no management experience and in most cases no IT experience other than at Blue Nile.

They do have a profitable business going and they're very nervous about making mistakes or causing even one hour of down time. The impact this has on the culture is that it's very risk averse and this leads to a general lack of creative and technical stimulation for those working there. You have managers with a limited cross section of industry experience who are motivated by fear of failure. Not exactly the makings of a stimulating work environment.

If you want a job where you can punch in, punch out and if you're well acclimated to the usual group think and buck passing common in most public companies, then Blue Nile is a safe place to let your skills atrophy. I wouldn't have made it as long as I did (and I quit before even making it a year) if it weren't for the laid back atmosphere. While the environment is political, the people are nice and you don't have the open confrontational atmosphere common at many Seattle companies. I was probably the most confrontational person there during my tenure.

The VP is new, gets it to a point and is trying to balance the need to reform legacy systems (and especially legacy thinking) with the company's low tolerance for risk. But honestly, if you consider yourself a "good" developer and want to make a real contribution in the world, pass on Blue Nile.

If, on the other hand, you have your pick of multiple stodgy, mediocre IT jobs, know deep down that you'll never be a rock star and are lucky just to make a living in this business, Blue Nile is for you. Job security is good and management will never know how bad you suck at writing code, because they do too. Hey, at least it's not Clearwire.

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