Pros
- There are infinite learning opportunities if you seek them out (and even if you don't). People have varied skills and levels of experience and are very willing to share. - People are very kind and helpful. Oftentimes they will drop what they're doing to help you or explain things to you. - Projects are exciting and varied. You have pretty significant freedom to work on what you want here. There are a handful of projects happening at any given time that lie in different industries and require different skill sets. - The management structure makes new-hires immediately feel like a member of the community. The relatively flat structure here made me feel like one of the team. Despite having less experience and not being accustomed to the work culture, I didn't feel like I was below any of my coworkers, even the CEO! This is helped by the open layout of the building where interns, managers, engineers, and even the CEO all sit close together at the same desks. On my first day, the CEO struck up a casual conversation with me at the communal bookshelf and I didn't even realize who he was until later that day. - There is a lot of room for career development. If you bring forward a plan to your manager for work you would like to do, show that you're able and willing to put in the time, and demonstrate how it will help the company, you can take control over how you develop your career pretty easily. I came in with a degree in a different engineering discipline, and told my manager on the first day that I wasn't particularly interested in doing work in that field here. He was very receptive and together we worked out things for me to do that aligned more with what I wanted. - The work flexibility is very nice. There is a generous unlimited PTO policy which takes stress out of planning vacations, as well as11 newly added paid holiday days throughout the year. The working hours are not set in stone, as long as you are able to work effectively with team members. This means you can come in and leave at different times as long as you are not affecting the workflow of your peers without notifying them. The work from home policy is also fairly good. While no hard lines are explicitly stated, the company encourages people to work to their preferred style, and have and adjust their expectations in response to COVID-19 spikes and trends. Right now the expectation is default working in the office, but employees can work from home up to half the time if they desire. - The compensation is good. I was ready to negotiate my salary during my hiring meeting, but I was offered significantly more than I was aiming for. This in addition to the excellent benefits, PTO and sick time, and retirement account matching makes me feel well taken care of and valued. There's also catering every day - free lunch and dinner - and a well-stocked kitchen. I really enjoy sharing a meal with coworkers and chatting about whatever is on our minds, what we did over the weekend, or even playing games.
Cons
- The work/life balance seems to be difficult for some people, and I do not know what support is there for them from management. I regularly see people staying late at the office, or dipping out of fun after-hours events to get back to work. This may very well be tied to the flexible working hours, but I also think some people over-work themselves or simply have too much work on their plate. On the same note, I know some people do not take their vacations because they feel like they will fall behind on projects if they do. The CEO touched on this in our last all-company meeting and I appreciated him combating those negative mindsets. This seems like a step in the right direction to me. - The working environment is very fast-paced. This can be perceived as a pro or a con, but due to the nature of the company, things move very quickly around here. Every project has its own deadlines being pushed, and engineers often work on multiple of these projects at once. In addition, there are other expectations placed on them for developing company infrastructure in a timely manner. People, including managers, often vocalize their stress about how busy they are and how many things they have going on at any given time. To a certain degree, this is a show of camaraderie - sharing in common struggles - but it can also allow for unhealthy work habits and mindsets to go unchecked. - There is no/little formal on-boarding or training for new-hires. I felt very lost on my first few days, unsure of what I was supposed to do or how I could find my place. I was given a tour of the facility, a short presentation about the company, and a walk-through of setup and usage of all the software the company employs in day-to-day use. I spent a lot of time talking to people to see what was happening around me and reading information I could find on the internal wiki. I found my bearings eventually, but it made me feel like there was no plan for me and like I was taking up valuable time from other engineers by trying to understand the projects they were working on.