Pros
1. Trying to build a great working culture 2. Some top management were cool people 3. Nice office location 4. Flexible work 5. Unlimited paid leave 6. Ice cream and pizza days
Cons
1. Can't quite pull off the culture thing. I think it might be the people. I felt I was subjected to a certain rudeness from some of the employees who had been there longer than I was, especially in HR / admin. During my first few weeks, I saw a lot of stern "no" replies for several things. I also saw some prejudice about Pakistanis from someone in admin, during my visa application 2. During the interview process, I was promised my own choice of computer and screen, but budgetary limits were cited, and I was given whatever they had in stock, which barely sufficed since I was in the engineering department. This was a pain to work with, but no regard was given 3. My first day, nobody showed me around. The next day, someone from HR asked me why I hadn't introduced myself to other people. I think that set the tone for their behavior and it just went downhill from there 4. There wasn't much work to do. During my first weeks there, I had a big and exciting project. But after that, especially around the holidays, a lull started, which made me lose motivation. HR called me in to talk about why I was missing work, and I explained to them about how there wasn't much to do during the day. They promised they would find more work for me, but my last couple of weeks, I didn't have much to do 5. The biggest disappointment for me was the quality of code I had to work with. With JadoPado, I took on a smaller role than before, hoping I'd get to work with an amazing team on an amazing codebase, but that wasn't the case. My understanding is that management pushes for quick releases which causes the engineering team to play fast and loose with best practices 6. There's not much democracy in the company. Often times, ideas were shot down because someone in management had already decided on something and they wouldn't budge. Once I suggested that we should try a different font in the app, and someone said "We'll use X, and X only." 7. Low pay, and hardly any perks In summary, if you're an exceptional individual, JadoPado might not be the place for you. You'll be expected to conform, and that doesn't bode well for very talented people.
