Pros
Surrounded by extremely bright, hard-working, collaborative, and overall positive co-workers on my particular team (can't speak to to any others). We test a lot of fast-moving projects - many opportunities to expand responsibility, take the lead on situations; I learn something new almost every day, decent transparency from management; parallel and supporting teams are very open, friendly, super helpful amongst themselves and each other. Emphasis on work-life balance - you're expected to work hard and always be expanding your capabilities, but the culture is really social, and most people seem to maintain interests and a life outside work. Benefits and perks - GREAT food and beverages for all 3 meals and snacks, (dinner is not as over-the-top, but still pretty great). - Health Insurance very comprehensive, monthly fitness/wellness stipend, cell phone plan, 401k (with an employer matching program - I need to look into that). Location: middle of SF = great for folks not super into living in SV/Peninsula (or commuting there). CEO & company culture really emphasize community service, company-wide volunteer days each quarter, lots of clearly highlighted opportunities to volunteer more often, plenty of options to fit a lot of different employees. Twitter Inc. donates funds, tech hardware, services to many local programs; holds events, trainings, and functions at the office regularly; and just opened an official neighborhood "nest" and training/learning center in our offices! Also love that our CEO doesn't sit sequestered in an office if he doesn't have to - he's out and about walking our halls, checking in with people, saying hi to everyone...I value that quality in a CEO/boss.
Cons
- Many colleagues can come off as immature, low EQ, poor team dynamic; many don't seem to realize how many opportunities are here for career dev IF you're willing to work for it and prove it - wondering why you don't get a promotion 2 months after being hired is ridiculous. Have seen more than 1 person get upset when a more pro-active and thoughtful colleague is selected for a leadership role or given recognition - it doesn't just happen, people! You have to get after it! - Strong work ethics, competitive natures, powerful minds, and fast pace are great, but can also combine at times for ridiculous competition and insane expectations (i.e. mgmt increasing workload by ~20% while telling employees they're expected to work same hours - so no overtime has to be paid??); - Managers/Supervisors can get overworked from above as well - team benefits less from a manager's awesome leadership skills if he/she is just running around putting out fires. Some test/pilot programs should be scrapped sooner than they actually are (what's the point in continuing in the same vein for 3 months, when it's obvious after 4-5 weeks that it's a waste of everyone's time?) - Executive team seems to be moving Twitter platform more towards resembling FB. I don't know how I feel about this. If it's successful, then who am i to disagree; but I worry that the platforms are becoming too similar - Twitter is smaller and more agile, I'd like to see us take advantage of that more. - Benefits are VERY good - but could still be better - would like to see a few more big benefits that Apple/Google/FB have been offering - maybe some bonus health, housing, and shuttle/transportation perks - we have some of these perks to an extent already, I'm just being greedy. Location cons: middle of SF: - still a pretty rough neighborhood, and the city's rampant homeless problem is on full display here, although hopefully the services, charities, and organizations in the area make a difference in some people's lives; it can be pretty depressing getting asked for money 3 times along 1 block, I've seen fights, drug use, mental illness, when walking around the area. - Forget about parking for a reasonable cost, and forget about finding a nice apartment anywhere in SF (unless maybe you're willing to live with 4 other people, and even then...)
