Great Company - Software Engineer Vault Innovation Employee Review

Work Environment: After a few... disappointing experiences in various fields, I was somebody who thought I'd spend my entire career as a freelancer. I value my flexibility, I like variety, and I'm about getting things done without being micromanaged, etc., and I was convinced I'd never find those attributes working for somebody else. Happily, working at Vault has proved me wrong - the atmosphere is flexible while still being productive, and values results over punching a time clock. Combine that with an excellent vacation policy and generally being understanding about people real lives and needs, and I couldn't ask for a better place to work. Variety: One thing I'm personally always concerned about is getting stuck in a rut, working forever on one project that I don't even care about succeeding. That's a one-way ticket to browsing twitter all day, and frankly that sounds like my own personal hell ;). One of the great things about working at Vault is that as an agency you get plenty of variety week to week and month to month, but their holistic approach to those projects means you get fewer duds than an agency that just churns out client work without caring. Better, Vault as a company is all about sustainable growth as a company - they work with startups, so you get a bit about startup atmosphere without the uncertainty. And of course, as a company grows, that means it does need a bit more structure - in my opinion, Vault handles this in one of the best ways I've seen, adding what we need without suddenly adding a pile of bureaucracy that could kill the company. I firmly believe Vault will be around for many years to come. Interview Process: I just want to say a few words about Vault's interview process because this has been one of my major issues with the tech industry as a whole: when I interviewed with Vault, I was pleased that they tested my skills without wasting my time, and during the interview process, asked meaningful questions without resorting to silly interview cliches, trick questions, or "gotcha" puzzles and live code tests designed to make you look like a fool. As a programmer with many years of experience I've always found that the typical interview process ranges from "silly" to "downright insulting". There's a refreshing honesty in Vault's process that extends to the company culture as a whole, and as somebody who was skeptical about working at any company they really sold me from the very beginning. In short: great place to work, and I'm so glad that I ended up here!

Let's be honest: working at an agency means lots of projects of various sizes, which means things can get chaotic and messy, and you'll spend a lot of time on things that ultimately don't launch or fail horribly right after they do. While I do love the variety, of course over time this can be stressful and frustrating as well - it's one of those tradeoffs you have to make in this industry for better or worse.

Remote. Fun clients. Coworkers are nice.

Poor planning on leaderships part (hired & downsized my role in 10 months time). Too small & unstable. Interview process is lengthy & unnecessary. Have to track time down to the 15 minute increment.