Pros
40 Hour Weeks: This is a place where you are going to be expected to work 40 hours a week and that is it. Definitely not a place where you are signing away your soul. Other Employees: The employees are pretty young overall and really nice people. Location, Location, Location: This was a huge plus, blocks away from the White House and a short walk to nightlife. The office is off the Red Line at the Farragut North metro stop. It is easy to find a happy hour to head to after work or any little errand from going to CVS or grabbing flowers for your significant other. Benefits: The employee benefits were also pretty solid: 5% matching on a 401(k), monthly contribution to a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for your yearly healthcare premium, $300 dollars toward personal development, $300 towards gym expenses.
Cons
CEO: Steve Goldenberg comes across as quite knowledgeable and sincere. He is a smart guy, but the sincerity is truly lacking. He will not do the right thing for an employee, even if it makes logical sense. He will rely only on input from other leadership team members and not use his brain. Terribly disappointing experience. Leadership Team: This is the most corporate start up you could imagine of leaders who have not been in a corporate environment. The management team is paranoid about every little thing and is not focused on the real goal of growing the user base that actually is using the product and actually providing real support to the client base for implementing the products. Culture: There was a big push to create a company culture. The biggest problem here is when there is a vacuum in the leadership following through on everything. Product Updates: The team is very focused on growing the number of products they can sell to clients. They do not even actually use the feedback that is taken from hundreds of clients and make changes to the product. The development team drives a lot of the thinking and action and they will do what they think is best. Other Employees: A large majority are skewed towards being introverted and that may not be the best fit for you. Deadlines: One of the more frustrating things as deadlines are not taken seriously by the team leads. This could be a software deadline or a compensation one. Whatever the case the leaders leave the impression that they do not know what they are doing. You're an Employee: You are only an employee to this team. There is no real outline for you to use some of your employee benefits - you may even be denied a reimbursement for buying books that improve your knowledge in a different area from your job description. Never was the issue of options or equity even discussed with the real team that makes the company run - the actual employees. If you take the job, keep looking elsewhere for your next move upwards.
