Pros
- Act on the climate(!): Awesome, awesome opportunity to do really impactful work on climate change, while saving our customers money at the same time and working with a team who are all genuinely passionate about it too. The industries we have picked are CO2 intensive and 'hard-to-abate', meaning what we're doing is hard but if we can crack it and scale it, the potential is very exciting. It's definitely a major reason for working here.
-Great people, great culture: A really friendly team and a fun culture without it feeling forced or inauthentic*. People are engaged and social but still have their own lives to live outside work. This varies in a really natural way across the team, matching the schedule, interest and internal/external commitments of each person - but overall creates a sense of warmth and enjoyment of work that I'm grateful for. *Supporting this culture of 'fun and kindness' is definitely something that is actively driven as one of the key principles of working here, so it's not like it's entirely spontaneous - but, they've managed to achieve it in a way that doesn't feel artificial and false (and I have seen the difference in previous companies!).
- Cool tech, lots to develop : Genuinely working at the leading edge of industry in how we can apply machine learning and broader AI to control primary manufacturing (cement the focus today given cost and carbon reduction opportunity). Makes for very interesting work, plenty of development and learning opportunities.
-Last (and least depending on your priorities) - Great office vibe, location and snacks: Great office in London Bridge, good transport links, pleasant location to work from, nice colleagues and very good office snacks (not Google! but definitely a small but notable bonus).
Cons
- Hours depend on the work that needs doing, so can be long: There are core hours, but the company is really flexible about helping people make things work for that. With all that said, the work we're doing is hard and ambitious and people are pretty motivated by the vision, so it's pretty important to be prepared to put in a shift when needed (everyone else is) . Probably not the place if you want to keep to a 37.5 hour weekly limit (you could try it, but it probably wouldn't be much fun or that rewarding).
-Startup-level benefits, risk, work and change - the office is great and the people are friendly and engaged with their work, but you aren't going to get the job stability, unchanging job roles with clarity on future progression and deep benefits ( e.g. super high pension contributions) that a deep pocketed place institution might offer (yet - at least, I know they are working on the benefits). Worth being upfront about it! Similarly, working in a startup developing a new technology in industry means you have to be happy to do both the glamorous & cool research and problem solving alongside the hard graft that just gets things done.
- For the climate warriors - I think there's a huge opportunity to tackle climate change through this work, but you do have to accept that a) you'll work with big polluting industrial companies to get there and b) we have to make the product so good that it doesn't act as an accidental greenwash by only getting halfway there. I have and do think about this and on balance think the work here is a very good bet, but make your mind up for yourself on this if it's important to you.