Pros
When you walk into the doors of the ESO office each day you can’t help but feel inspired. You can see the ambulance that represents the customers you’re helping, read research informed by the data your products help collect, and listen to talks about the future of the industry (and how you’re making an impact). It’s a bit different during COVID but the sentiment is still the same. ESO is probably the only company I’ve seen that takes the mission statement seriously and tries to exemplify it in all they do. The benefits are solid. ESO can’t compete with Amazon, Facebook, and other tech stars in ATX so they don’t have the best of everything but for the size and scope of the company, the benefits are quite good. You get 20 days of PTO, paid parental leave, 401K matching, health stipends, etc. Depending on where you are in your career you may find ESO is a great fit in the sense that layoffs are rare and salaries are stable with an opportunity for an annual merit-based increase between 1-5%, and the work/life balance is pretty even. You’ll also find some coworkers who are always willing to go the extra mile to help you out even if it means piling more on their already full plate.
Cons
What’s the con then? If the mission and vision are real and the coworkers you have are great why wouldn’t you sign up to work at ESO as soon as possible? Products. The products are often touted as “best in class” and from the first view they sure do look that way. Compared to others in the industry ESO has a superior user interface and slick marketing to make it all look grand. In reality, many of the products are lagging behind the times and there isn’t enough time, energy, and people put into improving the core products. Product managers, BAs and engineers are constantly frustrated by the fact that so much of their time is spent cleaning up rather than moving forward. New products are launched without fully understanding the depth of what it takes to make them functional for the field and acquired products are a mash up of “it’ll do” and “fingers crossed this works”. The consequence of this approach is that there’s often a misalignment between sales, product and marketing. The expectations versus the reality of what a product can do are all over the place which makes customers and employees alike annoyed. Culture. “Culture fit” is a deadly weapon at ESO. Stay up until past midnight for six weeks trying to get a project out the door? You’ve got passion, flexibility and teamwork. Get so tired you need a an actual break (not one where you’re tethered to Slack 24/7)? I’m not so sure you’re living up to the core values. Make an exit from ESO? You’ll be labeled a bad culture fit and all of the work you’ve done was somehow wrong. You just didn’t “get it”. It’s certainly a unique ESO experience to watch a co-worker be generously toasted and praised for their work and then torn down the moment they’ve left the building. Process and Scale. It’s a challenge to scale a start up and the messiness of scale is felt at every level of ESO. Many processes are outdated and upheld because “X likes it that way” or “that’s just how we’ve always done it”. It’s doubly frustrating because you’re told to break things, build process, and make your efforts scalable but then there is either no financial investment or executive back up for doing so. The CEO is involved in an inordinate amount of decision making and even the ELT/SLT often can’t decide on the right way of doing things, leading to stagnation. Management. No matter how much time and money ESO poured into leadership training the management never really improved. Why? Because the executives refuse to listen to the real reasons why management breakdowns occur. It’s not about catchy slogans and pithy declarations. It’s about aligning on what we are actually chasing and empowering smart people to make smart decisions. Instead of embracing feedback executives get red-faced and demand that we must be the ones doing it all wrong. ESO saw a lot of key managers and directors jump ship in 2020 because they aren’t heard or valued. Ask yourself why you’d see people make an exit in what was decidedly a bad year for a career change and you might get a sense of what it’s like to work at ESO. DIBs Lipservice. ESO tries to enact policies around DIBs that make life better but they keep missing the mark in so many ways. From equitable pay to giving unposted jobs to favorite employees, they just can’t seem to get it right. They make space to hear concerns but there is a real difference between “hearing” and “listening”. If all you do is execute surveys and talk a big game you’re not actually listening, you’re making yourself feel better. I once had someone tell me that you’ll never feel as good as you do working at ESO. You know you’re making a difference and I think that blinds people to the realities of the very real problems at ESO. You can get by on that high of helping for a long time before you come back to Earth. If you’re thinking about working here ask yourself if those feelings will get you through the many real frustrations you’ll face. If you consider yourself an “A player” (ESO’s term for a top talent employee) you will inevitably find yourself gritting your teeth in meetings over your inability to make change and impact within your role.