Pros
- Remote first, but also a beautiful office you can work in if that's your jam (and free food in the office twice a week). Quarter to half of my team works hybrid or in office full time and rest fully remote. I haven't felt as a remote worker that I was less supported or valued than my in-person peers. - A lot of kind and intelligent people, not always a mix you can find. I legitimately like all of my coworkers. I don't even have a coworker that my friends and I collectively label as "that guy" (you know the one) when talking about work. I've never had a coworker talk over me when I'm talking in a meeting here, even when we're over zoom, or ignore me until someone of a different background repeats what I just said verbatim. Completely novel experience. - Welcoming of all kinds of diversity, and an interview process that reflects that. - Excellent work-life-balance. 40 hour work week is what's expected, and people generally stick to that very well with only one of my coworkers popping in after hours on a regular basis. - Polar opposite of Amazon work culture. Very different from most startup work cultures. Burn out strongly discouraged. - You're treated like a responsible adult in terms of time off needs. Have a sick kid? It'll be okay. Need to go to the doctor? Great, do it. - 3 weeks mandatory vacation / 'OctoCalm' for those of us who struggle to take time off self-directed plus a number of holidays. OctoCalm lines up well with kids being out of school regardless of where you live (over winter break and over 4th of July). - Great benefits for a startup. Free medical, dental, vision for you and your entire family, free long and short term disability and life for you. The family deductible is only $500 as of writing this, $250 for individual I believe. If you have any sort of medical concerns or are disabled, this is incredible. - Growing while a lot of companies are doing lay offs. - We refer to us as a collective group as Octonauts, have a lot of nautical themes, and support of nerdy goodness. - Really cool product in a really cool space with a lot of opportunities to learn. - CEO occasionally turns all-hands into miniature CS lectures, and I love it. - Community where asking hard questions of management is welcomed. Very collaborative, safe, creative environment where people don't shy away from speaking up or trying where they may fail. - LGBTQIA+ and disability inclusive. - Series C funded startup with growing customer base.
Cons
- Gradually transitioning towards more corporate vs startup culture, and having a few bumps along the way as we grow. - Onboarding was slightly painful as an engineer since there are a lot of docs that need a lot of overhaul, but fortunately everyone is very kind so asking a bunch of questions is welcomed -- and then updating the docs. - No 401k matching, but 401k or Roth does exist. - Room to grow on attracting more diverse candidates, particularly for management and higher levels. This is a recognized issue within the company, and work has started to be done to address this, but we're not there yet. That said, there are far more NB and women on my team than at any other employer I've worked for and more people with disabilities. Usually it has just been me.