Pros
- Next Step is a smaller team, which means that your work really makes a difference, you interact with everyone from the company including leadership, and you exercise a good deal of creative control over your projects. This also means that there is a wider range of responsibilities and skills involved in my job, as well as opportunities for advancement. - Next Step employees work remotely, which has a lot of benefits. This makes positions very flexible in terms of work location and scheduling your time, increases productivity (especially when choosing to work in early morning/later PM or weekend, without any pressure to do so), and eliminates the need to commute. - The work itself is enjoyable, largely due to the nature of a smaller company: greater control over projects, variety of responsibilities, and constant growth/innovation. - My colleagues are brilliant and very pleasant to work with. We also are constantly growing and add people to the team pretty regularly.
Cons
- As a smaller team, there are some limitations. Rather than contracting out tasks, we will often perform them ourselves, sometimes without the most up-to-date illustration software, etc. While resulting in more work, this does allow hands-on control in the product and day-to-day variety in our work. - Next Step is growing, and projects move at a fast pace. However, sometimes that means that deadlines are set at a rate that constrains the amount of time available to review your work. - As a remote team, it can take more effort to engage with colleagues, and idea generation occurs over deliberate meetings rather than casual hallway conversations. Our teams check in very regularly, but it's no substitute for in-person contact.