Pros
Work / life balance - Flexible, decent amount of work from home possible. If you have to skip out of work mid day for an appointment, no problem. If you're sick, but can still get work done, you are encouraged to work from home as to not bring the bug into the office, but not force you to take a personal day. Management - Managing partners view employees as people. My boss was great to work for. I believe this to be the case for all director level and above folks I worked with, except for one. Culture (also see cons) - Very open, friendly and welcoming. There are a lot of genuinely good people working here. HR - Human Resources really tries to make it the best place they can (benefits, hires, ect). Very helpful and friendly. Break room - Plenty of snacks and beverages available. Employee Attitudes - Most everyone genuinely cares about doing good work, and supporting their colleagues. Very seldom will anyone drop the ball.
Cons
Core values - Gradually becoming watered down. When a change in process or the organization is being implemented, rather than explain/be transparent about the real reason behind the move, it may be swept under the "Constant evolution!" rug. As if saying "it's constant evolution" is supposed to make everyone just nod and go back to work. When in doubt about how to explain something, align it to a core value. Compensation - Not the best. My next job paid quite a bit more, with much less stress. Culture - This place puts the "Cult" in "Culture". If you can drink the kool aid, you'll be alright. I found it mentally taxing to have to deal with the daily ongoing love fest. If you're an introvert, the social nature of this business will also be pretty taxing. Work environment - Way too much unnecessary noise on a regular basis. If you're someone who writes any sort of code, and have to concentrate in the slightest, you may have some issues. To be fair, there is a lot of build out being done at this time, however, over the time I worked at Magnet, I had to live with my headphones on. Even with headphones on, it was rarely enough. Keep programmer types away from the social hour. Personal career development (skill enhancement) - Not much. On certain projects I had the opportunity to learn something new if 1) I recognized there was a better way to do something 2) There was enough hours on the project for me to figure out a better approach. Other than that, there were zero opportunities for me to explore any real training related to my line of work. This may not be true for all positions, but it was true for me. The vast majority of new skills or knowledge I picked up was far outside the realm of my actual job, so I doubt I'll ever use it again. Little to no value for me moving forward. Career advancement - Zero. You will most likely be in the same spot years down the line as where you start. If you're ambitious, use this as a stepping stone. Too many "We'll figure it out" implementations - I saw too often projects won, where we had very little to no real knowledge of some of the core technology in the solution pitched. This would result in long days / nights and weekends in order to get it done on time, since there was far too much learning on the fly. This also would not be very budget friendly. If you want to play in a particular space, do some proactive training ahead of time and mitigate this type of thing.