Pros
-honest, at least the people that I interact with regularly -high quality people (not your usual depressed, burnt-out, alcoholic seniors, who hate everything and everyone and are sick in body and in spirit, these kind of people are sadly common here in Eastern Europe, not many of these kind of people at Exadel) -transparent, at least what I have seen since I work here, and at my level, (I sometimes hear higher ranking people complaining about this, but I don't really know what is happening at higher levels) -clear progression path -growing company with opportunities -not overly bureaucratic, even though it is a big company -people actually get promoted, and promotion is not "extinction based" -no "alcoholism culture", where if you don't get regularly drunk with 50+ year old alcoholic top management you are barred from advancement over a certain level, thankfully this is not that kind of place as far as I can tell
Cons
- while the organization promotes a culture of work-life balance, this is just not true if you actually want to get promoted (you need to complete internal courses, training, prepare for the exams, all the while you have to maintain an exceptional performance while working full time, of course advancement is optional, nobody forces people to do this, but still I don1t think work-life balance is attainable for the majority) - this is an outsourcing agency, and as such the business model is predictable; however, it may not align with you, so know what you are getting into (meaning: you are a faceless, replaceable, behind the scenes "workhorse" at the companies where you will end up working, at the very least at lower levels, management and really high levels will be unattainable to you, forever) -there is a visible gap between senior management and the operational "front lines", some executive leaders appear insulated from the day-to-day realities of the workforce, supported by internal circles that limit diverse perspectives ("yes men"), this is a common problem at big companies, although here it is nowhere near as bad as at the other big companies I worked at -the HR department is in its' own little bubble, they get excited about programs, activities which make no sense and are absolutely not beneficial + "voluntary" events, and they pretty much force you to attend by "politely asking repeatedly to go, in a tone that makes it clear you should not say no" (I really don't like this, make it mandatory then, or just leave us be) - while cross-functional collaboration is necessary, and everyone should feel valued, the current culture over-emphasizes the contributions of non-developers,, non-technical people, which can create friction with the technical teams who drive the core product and are obviously significantly more important to the success of the company - why are you hiring people who only finished high school? I know there are only a very few of them at the company, ok, and if they have many years of experience and are exceptional, sure, but please tell me what justifies hiring a 21 y old teenager who only finished high school and have at most 2 years of experience, if that? in the current IT job market such decisions make no sense, unless he or she is someone's someone... (which might be the case) people who hire such people should be fired, a sciences, any sciences diploma, should be mandatory (with a preference for computer sciences of course, but please, no more people who only finished high-school)
