Pros
- My direct manager was receptive to feedback and went to great lengths to ensure that we had someone to discuss issues with. - There is a pretty defined "lunch culture"; you're not expected to be at your desk 9 to 5, at least on the engineering teams. A 45 minute to hour long lunch break with co-workers was a normal occurrence. - Coming from a background without prior workplace experience in the engineering field, I was given plenty of opportunity to learn new skills, and receive beneficial feedback that helped me improve as an engineer. - Solid IT department who were able to help with just about any problem and are easy to approach and quick to help. - Pretty solid development environment for engineers, was already built out and documented when I got there. IT provides a laptop of your desired brand (age depends on what they have in the stockroom, but it'll be able to do work for you). Two screens in addition, and whatever other little odds and ends you might need (mouse, etc.) - Never had to work crazy hours aside from a few expected days, nothing out of the blue though. - Taking time off is pretty straightforward and not frowned upon, at least on the engineering team.
Cons
- No room for vertical or horizontal growth at Firespring if you do not want to be one of the many managers there. - Very loud workplace. Engineering was placed directly across a short divider wall from the client support team, so enjoy listening to CS explain how to setup email accounts day in and day out. If you prefer a quiet workspace where you can do things without blasting music, you probably want to look elsewhere. - The engineering team has what feels like zero input at times into the projects they are working on. Cross-team communication is an important aspect to any successful business, but we were frequently overruled by managers in the customer support and marketing departments with no input into those decisions. - Firespring's core product is its custom CMS platform targeted at printers and non-profits, and yet the engineering team is one of the smallest teams at the company. - Pay is decent for the location as an engineer, but you can be paid significantly more at most all other companies in the area. Insurance was not covered by Firespring. There was no 401k matching. Lunch was catered multiple times per week when I started, by the time I left it was once a week and you paid for it out of pocket. Thats not a benefit, thats just conveniently placed food for you to buy. - Poor project management -- decisions come from all corners of the company and if you have senior management in your pocket you can put whatever you want into the task backlog, prioritized as you see fit and not as the product needs dictate. - Very public about why people were let go or terminated at the company. - Don't expect to have people paying attention in meetings. Laptops and phones abound. They're all just "taking notes" though.