Pros
- Relaxed and fun office culture - Beer fridge - Interesting challenges to tackle at scale - A good name to have on your CV - Somehow managed to assemble a great group of talented people in the web team that were a lot of fun to work with
Cons
- Below average industry salaries and reluctance to give raises despite frequently reminding employees of the companies strong financial performance - Lack of transparency at all levels - Poor career progression opportunities despite promises of improvements in this area - Lots of internal politics and bureaucracy that severely slows the company down - Doesn't offer the benefits that are common among most tech companies such as flexible working hours, unlimited holiday and more - Communication and collaboration between remote offices was an issue and never properly addressed - Reluctance to innovate and try new ideas has led to stagnation in several products - Too many decisions made at the top of the company without consulting those who do the every day work that keeps the company going - Reluctant to invest in employees career progress by paying for things such as conferences and training - Micro management by senior management that stifles creativity and innovation - Trying to make data driven decisions without investing in the right infrastructure and talent to do so - Numerous short sighted decisions were made with regard to the website leading to its inevitable decline - Poorly managed collaboration between development and "DevOps" teams lead to a lot of wasted time and frustration - Worrying tendency to "burn out" staff who eventually leave the company