Pros
Thirdwave was a great small company to work at! It is intimate and you will need to be a scrappy individual willing to learn new skills which I always thought was exciting. - Great hours, typically you will work a 9-5 day - It was a small but diverse team! There can always be more women engineers though - The management is receptive to feedback and open communication - The office is an open floor plan with plenty of space and whiteboards for brainstorming - Thirdwave is centrally located(you are in the thick of river north).What is an especially good perk is you get a discount at the yoga studio in the building and the hair salon is pretty fabulous. I would encourage you to patron the establishments over lunch - There is usually good music playing depending on who's DJing - You are given the best electronic digs depending on if it is an Apple or a Linux machine you prefer - Sponsorships to conferences is available if you ask - Free subscription to pluralsight - One pair of cubs season tickets, if you are into that sort of thing - Beers on Fridays - Summer hours are an awesome perk you get out at 2:00 PM on Fridays [Memorial Day - Labor Day] - There is a Christmas and summer outing. They did cancel one summer outing while I worked there and that wasn’t ideal - You get exposure to some pretty cool non-profit projects so there is a feel good component to the work - Lunch and learns on Wednesday - free pizza!
Cons
Small companies come with their set of advantages and disadvantages. It is not the company’s fault but some of the perks VC funded companies can provide can’t be matched here, such as unlimited vacation, unlimited snacks, FSA spending accounts etc… - Unfortunately, the health benefits are slightly pricey and their insurance network isn’t very good - No Dental - No Vision - No commuter benefits - There is no 401 K matching - There is no paid parental leave - There is a strict vacation and sick day policy. I believe when I initially started it was 10 vacation days and 3 sick days (I believe it is 5 sick days now) - You are awarded 12 remote days some additional days can be negotiated - There aren’t enough team building activates - Salaries can be very variable
