Pros
Teamwork is at the heart of everything we do at Alfa, be that consultancy, solutions architecture or development and Alfa’s greatest strength lies in the fantastic set of people and the way in which they come together to deliver for our clients. As a team lead, I expect to work closely with my team members over a minimum period of 6 months and we have generous amounts of time to dedicate to coaching, planning, retrospectives and one to ones. Every week I am impressed at the way in which my team comes together to support each other in delivering new features and urgent fixes for our clients. In practise this means that there is an emphasis on accountability, collaboration, communication, sharing information, continuous learning, pair programming, brainstorming, being flexible and thinking outside of the box. My team have access to a range of learning and development resources and opportunities and conference attendance is encouraged. If you expect to work in partnership with a motivated and intelligent set of people towards common goals, then Alfa is the place for you. As a long standing employee, I can say that I have been treated with the utmost respect and fairness at Alfa at all times. Promotion to senior grades is on the basis of merit and there is a clear and transparent process for this with job descriptions and a comprehensive appraisal system. It is also fair to say that as Alfa has grown, our workforce has hugely diversified since those early days and I have worked in teams where women and/or ethnic minorities are in the majority. In terms of hiring practises, I have worked alongside people with arts degrees, science degrees, years of java experience and no prior IT experience at all, I would say that what brings us together is the common set of goals for the team or the project. The work life balance at Alfa has been amazing and in my opinion has been a significant factor in retaining staff and promoting a great culture and atmosphere. I have worked in partnership with HR and my managers over the years to ensure that I can continue to take on new challenges at work as my needs evolve. This has included flexibility in working hours, working from home, having longer blocks of time off and flexibility to take annual leave at specific times of year. Also noteworthy at Alfa is that no two days are ever the same. I may work on features for multiple clients in a given day, I may be providing high level estimates, designing a solution for an urgent fix, or writing functional specifications and the list goes on. I might be sent to a client to discuss their requirements alongside our consultants or I may have a day of planning and one to one meetings. So I would say that if you want the opportunity to experience all parts of the process of providing enterprise software for large businesses then Alfa is for you.
Cons
The company did indeed go through a turbulent time with a great deal of change after the IPO and as others have commented, it was indeed difficult to see long standing colleagues depart.
