Pros
- Good benefits: employee benefits covered for you and the overall benefits are nice as they use good plans. Employer-contributed 401k as well. - Semi-decent pay: for Idaho it's probably is very competitive, but don't expect to make standard developer pay here, you can make much more elsewhere if that is what you are looking for. - Employer paid training/continuous learning: if you are looking at certifications and it makes sense for your role, they will cover it for you. They also have a few technical learning groups, which can be helpful, unfortunately most people are too busy to actually put good effort into these so you'll probably cover the same book 4 or 5 times.
Kontras
- ZERO work life balance: The CEO openly brags about how his loved ones feel like he has no time for them, but its because work is just so important. So you can understand why high level management continually talks about how life and work are intermingled. (They openly say that if money is no object, you'd still be there working because you believe in their mission...you don't show up to be a developer, you show up to "create abundance") Sure, you have a life and work at the same time so they will be mixed together in a sense, but that doesn't mean my life has to be my work. India night meetings also don't help here. The teams in India are great and they are fun to interact with. However, all you can think about in the afternoon is how you have another hour of meetings later on so you can't really enjoy your evening or make plans with friends/family. The work week here really feels like a grind. - Toxic "family" culture: They always talk about how they are a "family" and how they never want to fire anyone unless things just don't really work out. Basically this place is a buy in (or at least fake it) or get out. If you question the judgement of higher management, you're out, if you don't buy into their created language they spend a year drilling into your head, you're out, if you don't open up about your life traumas or dramas, you're out....seriously...people get fired for these things and one day are randomly gone. Once you ask about that person, they say that the person decided to move on from the company and all is well. They talk about transparency and authenticity but they do not stick to it themselves. They will also call you out on stupid stuff, like if they see you eating junk food they will march on over and tell you how it is terrible for you and how you need to lose weight (some experiences were a manager making fun of an employee in front of other employees on stuff like this), however they might constantly have a beer in their hands. Don't call people out on stuff when you have your own problems. Also, it's just not appropriate in a work environment. -Bogus roles: This is where new developers need to be careful. They will tell you and promise you anything. I wanted to be an actual developer there and I was promised that I would be a developer there in 6-12 months after a short stint in QA. Multiple years later and no sight of actual development role. Hell, even the QA role turned out to be a Product Owner/Business Analyst role. Some new devs get lucky and actually get put in a good position, maybe 1 out of every 5 hired, but they basically make the India teams do all the work while you attend meetings with clients so you can just say "Yes, we can do that!" and then make the India team do it. Senior devs can probably stay very technical here, but it's honestly a toss up for new devs. They have been, and will continuously will be, losing their great technical talent to other places because people actually want to freaking code, not sit in meetings all day. People who just want to show up and screw around in their free time love it here because they can do just that. Go to meetings, say yes we can, and then go out to lunch for 2 hours.
