Pros
The more time passes since I left Azavea the more I appreciate what it was like to work there, especially as my first "real job" out of school. Smart, open, friendly people. Meaningful projects and work where you find yourself going "I can't believe I get paid to do this" on a regular basis. Transparent management who's doors are always open (being an open office, there aren't any) and willing to mentor you and cares about seeing you grow. Excellent office facilities and work environment. Great benefits. Minimal politics - like any office humans, Azaveans complain about goings on in the company, but it took me leaving and working somewhere else for me to realize what "big organizational problems" worth complaining about really are - Azavea does not have that many and the ones it has feel surmountable. It truly feels like a family at Azavea where everyone is ready to pick up a shovel and do what needs to be done to make the company a great place to be, and have fun at the same time.
Cons
Looking back, probably the biggest con (and it wasn't that huge for me at the time, but for someone with different personal circumstances it might be) is timesheets. Much like a law office, Azavea works on client projects and billable hours need to be accurately tracked and projects completed on time. However, every activity is timesheeted, including internal/administrative/non-client tasks (management claims this is necessary to fit Federal government project regulations, but I have yet to meet another salaried employee at a government contractor with similar timesheet experiences), and there is significant social and management pressure to work more and stay in the office longer to meet a 40 hour a week requirement, every week. If you took an hour and 15 minutes for a lunch break, even if you talked about work with colleagues for all of it, at least I'd feel like I needed to stay in the office later that night to make up for it. The fallacy of timesheets is the idea that every hour of work is equal, or even that a 6 hour workday or a 35 hour week is lesser than a 9 hour workday or 50 hour week - this is by no means the case in my opinion. Many startups and technology companies (including the one I work at now) do not track time this way, which allows for a much more natural style of working I think. I might have a big project and work 50 hours one week, then a couple months later have a bit of a lull or personal obligations and feel fine to put in 30 hours. I still feel like I work just as "much" as I did at Azavea, but I feel much more relaxed without the accounting and pressure of time. Note that I have heard some aspects of this, including the "work from home" policy, have improved in the years since I left.
