Pros
- Pay is very strong now that we're using national salary bands instead of local ones - Very clear focus and direction, with momentum building toward a really innovative new product direction - Leaders not afraid to take risks, push the boundaries on cool new tech or build unique products - Good hybrid work balance with most of the company fully remote or work from home, but still having office space available for those who need or want it - Caring team and coworkers that are gelling really well now (2022). It helps that certain discontented past team members have moved on. - Very high degree of transparency from top leaders - Attitude from top down that all ideas are welcome and good ideas can come from anyone - DEI work and strategy from the past couple years is showing sustainable progress - Great place to learn and build skills. Leans toward internal promotions over hiring external managers. Role changes to help people grow in the direction they want to are common.
Cons
Company went through a rough patch in 2020 and 2021, as you'll see in a sudden small group of negative reviews after a long history of all positive reviews. Things are already much better in early to mid 2022. I'd like to share a more balanced view of what happened to counterbalance what I think are unfair reviews resulting from that period from a very specific clique of ex-employees. Business-wise: The company began a big pivot in late 2019. This wasn't universally popular. It lead to some projects being shut down, some teams being reshuffled and new ones being staffed up. We were growing quickly at the time and the leadership team knew this pivot would slow growth for a year or two, but thought it was for the best. I give them credit for sticking to their instincts, because it looks like they were right. After a lot of hard work, we're seeing that pivot starting to pay off, while competitors who didn't make similar moves are now struggling. The next couple years look bright. That said, this pivot moved us back to an earlier stage of company development, which wasn't for everyone on the team. Many people hired in the year leading up to it were more risk averse and joining because we were growing fast and seemed like a safe option. They got scared when we changed direction, and that amplified some cultural challenges in 2020 especially. Culturally: The company wasn't strong on remote work and hadn't put a lot of intentional investment into DEI prior to 2020. I don't think this was because of aversion to it. The founders are both pretty progressive from what I can tell. But 2020 came, they weren't ready for it and a small group of people became incredibly upset, which caused strain in the culture. To leaderships' credit, they heard the concerns and put in work to learn bout remote-first work and DEI in particular. Strategies to improve were developed and put in place. Today we're in a much stronger spot on both issues. As the negative clique left, things became more cohesive and positive again. Today, we're back to a culture of supporting and celebrating each other. There's much better alignment on where we're going. We're moving faster, shipping product faster and having more fun. Anyhow, reading those negative reviews from that group was upsetting to me so I felt compelled to share my point of view. Anyone reading should understand that those reviews also came at a time where people were incredibly fearful and emotionally charged to begin with. If those people joined the company today instead, they'd likely have a very different experience.