It was like going to the army to pay for college
Pros
Dream is a wonderful company to work at, full of congenial, hard-working, smart, friendly and fun people. They work very hard to maintain their culture and go above and beyond to engage employees and promote health, wellness and learning. Professionally, you’ll get a chance to run with things independently that might be above the level you would otherwise be at in a larger company, and you’ll learn quickly and develop to advance in your career faster as a result. These will also be towards some very interesting, landmark projects and deals. I would go to Dream all over again.
Cons
Dream is not a developer, it’s a hedge fund/PE firm that develops, and financial management is Dream’s primary value-add to any development partnership it enters. It’s not a bad thing at all, but one should know that going in because it drives everything at the firm, and the experience accordingly. It’s the classic pitfall of investment banking still hanging around from Dundee. People get promoted into people-management positions because they’re very gifted at finance and deal making (or not, but somehow get there anyways and leave you scratching your head). These people form the long-term core of Dream’s management. While many are fantastic managers and great mentors, others are not, nor do they have any interest in anything other than their own visibility and advancement whatsoever. The latter would be a small minority, but it’s definitely there unfortunately. I suppose it’s everywhere; maybe I’m just bitter. If your manager is the latter, your life will suck. It’s not a reason not to go to Dream, You’ll thank yourself later, and you will develop tremendously by virtue of what’s being dumped on you, but it will be painful. A lot of people can’t handle it, or plain don’t meet the expectations placed on them, which may very well be completely unrealistic depending on your supervisor’s managerial ability (or lack thereof). Hence the churn. Ohhhhh the churn. Everyone but the inner management circle churns like you’ve NEVER seen. It’s almost Orwellian, like 1984. One minute you’re talking to someone over coffee and the next....Poof. They gawn. Email address no longer valid. Like they were never there. No announcement of course, it happens too often, from resignations as well as terminations, to be fair, but it makes it very difficult to get up to speed as a new employee because you’ll be inheriting someone’s mess and/or busted excel model and there’s zero training coming in. Your manager is likely barely keeping their head above water with their workload (and yours, pre-transition) the day you sit down at your desk, and they can’t wait to hand off all the unsexy crap they just plain don’t want to deal with, especially if they’re in the management inner circle. If, like most employees, you’re outside of this circle, you’re dispensable, plain and simple. management assumes (quite rightfully so) that there are 100 people out on the street ready to take your place when you hit the glass ceiling. You won’t get through that ceiling, because your boss’ job is on the other side, and that’s when you disappear, voluntarily or not. Don’t worry, you’ll land on your feet in greener pastures because of the gauntlet you’ve just experienced.