3.8
68% would recommend to a friend
Steve Kennen
60% approve of CEO
68% positive business outlook
Pros
Wonderful people Work life balance Serving local community
Cons
The team is small, therefore when clients demand is high it can get a bit overwhelming. However everyone works well to figure it out as a team.
Pros
- Management transparency and communication: Steve genuinely wants what's best for both customers and employees. The CTO/technical lead (Brad) is an excellent teacher and mentor, always willing to slow down and walk through difficult problems with the techs. - Client relationships: Customers are virtually all fantastic. On the rare occasions when clients became difficult, Steve ensured that employees were never allowed to be mistreated. - Growth and mentorship: Steve was very good to work with as I grew and moved around within the company, giving me great opportunities for learning and growing. Brad was an incredible teacher - I learned vast amounts on the technical side from him. - Compensation: While the budget was occasionally tight, compensation felt fair and often generous as I grew quickly in my role. You may start a bit low, but have an honest conversation with Steve about what you need to do to increase your value, and you'll likely develop a plan together to get where you want to be. - Culture: I greatly enjoyed coming into the office daily to work with and learn from the team. As long as work was completed and customers were happy, we were encouraged to have fun. Having all the techs together in the "bullpen" and team lunches had a big impact on making work enjoyable. Fun chats when things were slow and great collaboration when things got challenging. - Work/life balance: Steve works hard to protect employees' work/life balance. The company has great policies preventing customers from expecting after-hours support as the norm. The on-call rotation for emergencies was manageable - the team is large enough and call volume low enough that this was rarely an issue. The team is also great about swapping schedules when needed. Do discuss whatever the current rotation and comp policies are because I've heard some places do it differently.
Cons
- Prioritization: Maintaining the company's focus on priorities could be challenging at times. I might have a list of a dozen company-wide issues that needed to be addressed and were agreed upon by management, but prioritization was always a struggle. It seemed as though whatever issue was top-of-mind for management was the #1 issue that needed to be worked on, and this could change week to week. One week problem A is priority, next it's B, then it's C, and by the end of the month problem A cycles back to top-of-mind and the big question becomes "why wasn't this done a month ago?" It was frustrating to me personally, but I doubt this is a big issue for many since it hardly impacted day-to-day ticket work. - Turnover: During my first year or two, there was significant churn (mainly due to culture incompatibility with technicians from an acquired company), leading to some rapid hiring that didn't always result in ideal fits. However, this had largely resolved by the end of my tenure, and we settled on a solid team. Turnover seems common for MSPs, but near the end of my tenure and from what I've heard since, the team has stabilized and they've got a solid group working there.
Pros
My background is in healthcare. I never loved it, but during the pandemic it became unbearable. I have always been interested in technology from a hobbyist's perspective, and in 2022, I left my healthcare job to focus on finding a way into tech. Steve and the team took a chance on me that fall, and I'm thankful that they did. Working at Proactive, I have been given the space to learn, grow, and make mistakes, knowing I’d have the support to learn from them and improve. I have been encouraged to learn new skills and to embrace failure as a part of the process. As a small team, we all have each other's backs. Everyone steps in to help when things get busy. Everyone cares about the work we're doing and wants to do a good job. I couldn’t be happier with my experience at Proactive IT.
Cons
The flip side of being a small team is that when things get busy, they can sometimes get VERY busy. It can be a challenge during these times to keep all the plates spinning.
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