Pros
Projects: The best part about working at Czero was the constant exposure to interesting, diverse, and challenging projects, typically oriented towards making a positive impact on the planet. Imagine working within an interdisciplinary team to apply academic principals (yes, even the ones you swore you’d never use in college) to solve real world problems that stumped even top technology OEMs – often, Czero’s clients- and you have the typical Czero project. Plus, projects typically include a manufacturing and test phase, so you’ll have the satisfaction of seeing your work come to life. Your project portfolio at Czero is guaranteed to boost your engineering abilities and marketability. Team: Czero’s engineering team was incredible, both personally and professionally. It’s nice to come to work knowing your colleagues will contribute and encourage you to do the same. Expect a team member to blow up weeks’ worth of work in a design review but buy you a beer at Odell’s the same day. Always embodying the concept of work hard- play hard, I appreciated the comradery that came with late nights with the team, whether it be at the office racing a deadline, or at the notoriously raucous holiday parties. Management: Guy and Chris were excellent leaders. They had high expectations but were also down to earth and understanding. They were transparent about the business, including when lean times appeared on the horizon. Even when they were completely swamped (which they usually were), I knew if I really needed something, they would take the time to listen and engage. Years after leaving Czero, I still consider them some of my most trusted mentors, and still call on them from time to time.
Kontras
Diversity: To no apparent fault of management, Czero’s team looked like it was plucked from a Fort Collins brewery during my tenure (or, more accurately, a mechanical engineering classroom). Unless it's changed since I left at the end of 2017, expect to work with people who are mostly white, male, and 25-35. Furthermore, the nature of a consulting company means that you will be working almost exclusively with engineers; some might struggle with that compared to, for example, a technology start up where you will work with people in sales, finance, accounting, operations, etc. Structure: Czero has a relatively flat hierarchy. Aside from the 3 company managers, there are basically staff engineers and team leads; even then, when projects finish, the team lead will often fold into someone else’s project as another contributing engineer. This is largely the nature of the beast with a small to mid-sized consulting company. While the structure might be difficult for someone motivated to continually leveling up, many might see this as a pro: young engineers will get much more responsibility and exposure than is typical, and those not interested in other aspects of running a company (business development, sales, HR, being someone’s “boss”) can happily focus on engineering.