Pros
- When asked about my job, I tell others that if I were building my own software team to build some other product, there's not a lot different that I would do than what I'm part of here at AWeber.
- I have the autonomy to work with my fellow team members and colleagues to truly do my best work. Teams have total freedom to spread their wings and figure out the best way to solve a customer problem. It's very freeing.
- I'm enabled to develop a mastery of my skillset, with plenty of room to innovate within that development, including being able to take trainings, go to conferences, and set aside time for sharpening the saw
- I'm encouraged to identify my own desired future skillset, and supported 100% to get there - both on the technical side, and the soft side.
- Full open source software stack which I think is awesome
- I'm encouraged to give back to the open source community - I've made countless pull requests to public repos during work hours related to fixes for stuff I'm working with
- Healthy work life balance, and never "forced" to work overtime. Instead, I'm happy that I'm part of a self motivated team with the drive to figure out ourselves when we need to go into crunch time.
- Great facility, it's not all for show. The game room is packed at lunch. I take the slide to lunch. You should see it's holiday decorations in December.
- Top of the line personal hardware (two Apple Cinema displays, Mac Book Pro, standing desk, herman miller aeron)
- No dress code besides, "wear clothes"
- Free hot lunches everyday are awesome with plenty of delicious healthy options
- I've never worked with smarter people in my life, not just in engineering, across the whole organization. Plenty of the engineering staff have authored actual books, and are thought leaders in their fields.
- Everyone is expected to be full transparent and honest, and people live up to this. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged at all levels of the organization, whether it's feedback on a pull request, or feedback directly to the CEO, it's encouraged, expected, and welcomed.
- Paid paternity/maternity leave - 1 week
- Despite the HDHP health plan being confusing and administratively frustrating, the coverage is good and HR is really helpful for sorting out billing issues.
- Leadership continually leads by example by "inviting feedback" from everyone (a core value)
- I love the "non anonymous" culture - everyone is very open with feedback where signing your name to surveys or year-end feedback forms is the norm, not the exception. It feels like a new level of corporate enlightenment.
- Plenty of workplace flexibility - if you need to work from home here or there, or take personal time for an appointment, it's not an issue at all.
- It's pretty clear how to succeed at AWeber. The more extreme you live and breathe the core values, the better you will do.
- A culture of autonomously "defaulting to action" is encouraged. When in doubt, "start with dangerous."
- Lots of feel good vibes flowing lately, especially through creative recognition of people for jobs well done
Cons
- Not enough people to get all the work done.
- Need more "vision" from leadership to inspire a sense of purpose. The "What" and "How" are often and clearly defined, it's the "Why" that needs development.
- Decent amount of legacy technical debt built up in systems, that isn't being paid down fast enough. It makes projects take longer than they should.
- Average number of vacation days. Not as much as I think should be offered to attract top notch talent.
- Lose a lot of talent located in Center City Philadelphia because of the location in Bucks County
- I'm not satisfied with the progress made towards our corporate key performance indicators or goals
- No remote or work-from-home policy
- Despite encouraging a culture of autonomy, there are occasions that it feels like management undermines "ground-up self-initiative" by "pulling rank".
