Pros
The CEO is inspiring and communicates a compelling direction for the company. There are also many thoughtful, capable individuals across the organization, and flexibility is supported in ways that make day-to-day work manageable.
Cons
My experience within the HR function highlighted significant gaps between the Applied's aspirations and how the People Team works. For an organization positioning itself as tech, HR is not yet operating with the clarity, responsiveness, experience, or strategic alignment needed to consistently attract and retain top talent and support a tech business. Within my team, leadership availability and strategic guidance were often missing, which created uncertainty about direction and reduced confidence and speed across the team. Communication from leadership was frequently disjointed, which meant meetings were frustrating and ineffective, prioritization was difficult, and team members had to spend additional time interpreting expectations. When challenges arose, accountability was not modeled at the leadership level, and issues were reframed in ways that shifted responsibility downward rather than fostering shared ownership and problem solving. I experienced deflection. Feedback was often provided without specific examples or context, limiting its usefulness and making it difficult to apply constructively. Reactions to clarifying questions created an unsafe environment and limited ways to move forward. There's great potential for high performance under different leadership. More broadly, there were noticeable trust and responsiveness gaps within the HR group. When a function responsible for culture and organizational effectiveness struggles with those dynamics internally, it impacts how the broader organization will achieve its objectives.