Pros
Let me tell you something I have had many jobs ever since I was 18 years old, and all of those jobs cannot even compare to working for Crystal Commerce. I've had jobs where bosses lied and cut me out of overtime I worked, not allowed me to even take a 5 minute break thinking I was slacking (lol), and just flat didn't care about your thoughts on how to improve the company. This company actively seeks out your thoughts, your opinions, what you think can make your department better, and they supply you with anything you want. If you need new software they buy it, new hardware they buy it. Heck we asked for a TV and got a brand new flat screen like 60" and play video games anytime we desire. We get a fully stocked kitchen of food every 3-4 weeks, a fooseball table, xbox, you name it.
Sometimes we do pot lucks where everyone brings in food and we all eat it, for birthdays the company buys you a cake and sings to you, we even have a liquor cabinet for anyone who wants a beer! We have two adorable cats that love attention, and we can pet them anytime we want. The company makes tshirts, hats, stickers, even coats and gladly gives them to us, I wear my shirt all the time. For anyone who likes playing Magic: The Gathering we have a game room where people are playing all the time, and no one gets on them for it. This company relies on trust and assumes you are doing the right thing and managing your time properly. I've never even been yelled at by a manager, which has happened at almost all my old jobs, I almost felt like it should have happened by now!
The company is flexible, if you need to take the day off, goto school, go on a date, it don't matter they are super lenient on what you need to do in your life. I've never seen anyone get in trouble for being busy, we just make up the time later. Sometimes we may need to work from home, and as long as your a designer or developer they are cool with that as long as they know your reliable. We have a big parking lot, you don't need to park on a street and pay like in Seattle, so it's nice that we are located in Mountlake Terrace.
Cons
Having a company being so open and lenient I have seen many people come thru here and get used to this environment, they then get upset when things don't go their way or aren't perfect. Having a stocked kitchen people start to expect food from the company and complain when there's nothing to eat, LOL first world problems? Management being so lenient people then can't handle when it's time to put the foot down if they messed up, they act like they shouldn't be blamed or micro managed, okay really more first world problems?
This company is only 6-7 years old and when I started I was sitting in a bed room because they rented out an apartment, we then relocated to a nice big place in Mountlake Terrace. Can a business this new be perfect and know how to compete with everyone? Of course not so yes it needs work by learning and making mistakes.
The company charges low amounts for new websites so it can sort of not allow a designer to work to his fullest potential due to the hour restraints, but then there is larger budget projects that give them that time. Lot's of parts of the online framework were coded by random people so there's lots of old and outdated things that need to be recoded to make the platform perform better.
I see some people mentioning the CEO, he has his bad days and can put his hammer down on you when things weren't done the way he expected, but over the years I've seen him work on himself etc. I've seen him get on people, but he's never done that to me. Just expect that if you aren't doing what's right someones gonna say something about that, that's life.
