Pros
* Great mission. There a lots of opportunities in tech and not all of them are very inspiring or going to help make the world a better place. Giving biotech researchers and scientists reliable, modern tools and support? That's definitely a mission I can get behind. * Stable. If we've learned anything in the past few years it's that 1. the world can change very quickly and that 2. Biotech + the Internet ain't goin anywhere. Never once felt insecure in my job. * Very high coding standards. If you want to hack things together quickly with a combination of duct tape, setTimeouts(), and copy pasta'd code from Stack Overflow, look elsewhere. * Absolutely zero corporate bureaucracy and red tape. It's a small, engineering-heavy team that values efficiency. Leadership is intelligent, reasonable and trustworthy. * 100% remote + Flexible hours. You need to be generally available during normal business hours and show up to the (very few!) meetings you're required to attend, but as long as you log your time for the week and get your work done, you're all set. * Good work-life balance. Never once was forced to work or be "on call" over a weekend in nearly 7 years
Kontras
* Very complex, niche business domain. Prepare to feel dumb (a lot) and ask a lot of questions. This is bleeding edge science and drug discovery combined with coding! [This could be a PRO depending on your mindset] * Having a remote team distributed across the US means that you'll need to be a self-starter. If you can't manage your time well, aren't willing to ask questions, and can't take ownership of your tasks, you're going to flounder. As an extrovert, I felt lonely at times so I had to personally reach out to coworkers for impromptu coffee chats and lunches to get those extra personal connections in, especially during the pandemic. * As a very small team (~12ish folks), you might think that you're getting in at the ground floor of a startup and get equity + ownership and such. However, SW is more of a micro-business than a "startup" in the conventional sense. So while you'll get a 401k + match, health insurance and 3 weeks' PTO, you won't get any of those "whiz-bang" benefits that other tech startups are so eager to advertise.