Pros
- Incredible work-life balance. In the 3-years I worked there, I rarely ever worked more than 40-hours a week. - Minimal deadline pressure. My team had very little deadline crunch. Deadlines are usually seen as goals rather than must-hit-deadlines. - Engineer-focused culture. APCON is an engineering company and as such engineers are respected. - Large amounts of agency and autonomy. My team was given a very large leash in terms of freedom to explore our technical solutions. For greenfield projects, we chose our projects, implemented design decisions, and created our own deadlines. - Able to wear a lot of hats in the software development lifecycle. I personally experienced every step of the software development lifecycle from planning to implementation. - This is a case-by-case basis, but I really enjoyed my team members. There are some great teams at APCON with talented people.
Cons
- The biggest con is that the CEO. I believe he has narcissistic personality disorder - I'm being very serious when I say this. He's a bully. I've seen directors and employees disagree with him or challenge him in meetings and watched them get fired a week later. If you want to last here, you must take a role of subservience and always do what he asks. - The CEO owns and controls 100% of the company. - The CEO usually works three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. - The CEO has never worn a mask in the office during COVID. - There is a significant amount of turnover at this company. When I first started working there, there were nine directors. There are now three. The CEO fired two and the others quit. The CEO is controlling and demanding making him very hard to work with. - Most engineers last between 2-3 years before leaving. 15 people left or were fired during my time there. This might not sound like a lot, but there are only 100 people at APCON. - The company is male-focused. 75% of the company is male, 25% is female. - The average age of APCON employees is 40+. There are very few employees in the 20 - 30 bracket. This is an older company. - There are unvaccinated employees working in the office. - APCON is very understaffed. As people leave and are not replaced, you will be asked to take on their responsibilities. - The CEO does not believe in remote work. APCON will never be a hybrid or remote first workplace. - APCON is not in "growth mode". It's in "stasis mode". This means it's not trying to beat its competition in sales or technology - it's trying to be equivalent to its competition. - APCON is a pretty sleepy place. Most of the tenured staff have parked and checked out career-wise. It does not have a young, vibrant culture where most of its employees are trying to innovate. For the most part, the directors and middle management are very happy with how things operate. - The pay and benefits are on the average to low side for its engineers. APCON pays decently for new grads and inexperienced developers, and very poorly for mid-level and senior-level developers.
