Pros
If you would have asked me last year, I would have given a much harsher review. Things have changed in the past year, however, and it's (for the most part) for the better. - The company has split (generally) into verticals. This makes it a lot easier to figure out whats going on with what you'll be working on and more structured. Before, I was working on a lot of different things and it was hard to context switch and figure out who to ask about questions/issues I had. Splitting into verticals has solved a lot of this. - I work with some really great and smart people. While there's always some dead weight, there doesn't seem to be as much at CK as I've seen at other places I've worked (on my team and the teams I work with, at least). Everyone seems to be very passionate about what they do. People are very nice as well. There's a few jerks in engineering, but 99% of people are pleasant to work with. - Perks are pretty good. The events team works really hard and always sets up fun offsets and outings for us. - Senior management really seems to listen. It sometimes takes a while to take action on issues, or they may not be addressed 100% to my liking, but they seem to at least acknowledge our feedback and truly take it into consideration. A concrete example: a number of us complained that the PTO we were getting wasn't competitive with similar companies. Ken, the CEO, brought up this issue at the company wide meeting, shared his research and announced that FTE employees would be getting the week between Christmas and New Years off, as well as some other PTO additions for brand new and long time employees, which I feel is a fair compromise.
Cons
- The bi-annual review process is super confusing. Last time, there was two different peer-review systems: one for CK as a whole and one for engineering. I felt like I was spending more time writing reviews for other people than doing work. I did get some useful feedback from others out of it, but I don't know if it was worth like the 15 hours I spent writing reviews in two separate systems. - The WFH policy is lacking still. Maybe I was spoiled at my last job where I could work from home whenever I wanted. However, a large number of us travel in from far way (i.e. San Jose, and farther!) and it would be able to work from home once in a while. I find I get a lot done working from home because I can work uninterrupted without people coming up to my desk to ask questions or chat.
