Pros
- The product is good. - Since the tech department is tiny (6 to 8 people) you'll get to see a relatively large swath of the entire business's tech. - As a software engineer, you'll likely also be a support engineer and answer emails and chats directly from users. Communicating with end users can be rewarding. - Laid-back culture. - Relatively stable revenue. There were only a few layoffs and emergency financial situations I know of over 20 years.
Kontras
- They don't/can't invest much in CI/CD pipelines, so you have to spend time building and releasing code manually. Similarly, they don't use a lot of popular tools and technologies, which makes experience at LabJack very niche. - Collaboration is frowned upon. They don't/can't spend much time mentoring newer employees. - Expectations are unclear. There's not a culture of constructive feedback. There's no cadence around merit-based promotions. (There aren't formal titles or levels.) Transparency is lacking around pay. - Low pay. I made a 79% pay increase by switching to a different company where I now have fewer responsibilities. - Upper leadership is a mixed bag. Employees that aren't a good culture fit with upper leadership are publicly teased by upper leadership.