Pros
Job: - Constant challenges and interesting problems to tackle - Autonomy to take ownership of issues without micromanagement - Real sense of purpose/satisfaction in a job well done - Great experience builder - Lots of opportunities for free education and certification (MCITP, RHCE, Cisco, CompTIA, PMI, etc) Culture: - Most people really want to be there and care deeply about customer service - Basically no dress code for technical folks - Values-based culture that places focus on getting things done the right way, both in terms of correctness and in terms of morality, you could say - Quarterly team outings Compensation: - Decent salary for certain positions (especially given San Antonio costs of living) - Good benefits (health, dental, vision, disability, stock purchase program, FSA/HSA, etc) - Good vacation time (17 days per year for new employees, 22 days per year for employees with 5 year tenure) - Flexible scheduling (no nickel-and-dime-ing of time off for doctors appts, etc)
Cons
- There is a lot of tribal/institutional knowledge that is not centralized (common problem with rapid-growth companies) - A few too many middle managers that don't seem to contribute much besides sitting in meetings - Lack of solid process controls, over-reliance on hero employees to fill the gaps left by poor planning/implementation - Some positions are under-compensated in terms of salary. However pay seems to start low and ramp up, for example I make almost 80% more now than when I started a couple years ago. - Not enough focus on holding individuals accountable for their performance. It's a great environment for self-motivated, high performing individuals to get the job done without micromanagement, but lazy/inept folks can fly under the radar for far too long. - Not enough focus on retaining top experienced people, however based on recent evidence this seems to have been fixed quite a bit in the last few months.