Been around for a while so take this part as you please but I believe my thoughts have a heavy weight on the day to day work that goes on around here.
One of the main cons is management. No clear business direction. Everything is just do as you go kind of concept. This trickles down to all employees and causes stress because everything is chaotic and on fire. Very little process as to what needs to be done and when so everyone is constantly scrambling to get any real progress done.
Another con is compensation and benefits. Being here for quite a long time, I would expect to have the best possible benefits and compensation since I know the product and system very well making me a huge asset. Unfortunately that wasn't the case because the last couple of years, I haven't received any annual raises which is pretty much a demotion due to inflation. The benefits are also not great; you just have 401k and limited PTO (12-15 days yearly) which is basic of the basics. No bonuses, no paternal/maternal, no continuing education/paid training for career advancement, etc.
Not attending to employee needs is another issue that has risen the last couple of years which resulted in high turnover and the more senior employees leaving (including me). This also resulted in our manager leaving who's been at the company since it started. Annual performance reviews took forever (months) to actually schedule and complete. Asking for a promotion or raise? Forget that.
Another thing I'd include is the clearly fake reviews especially the most recent one that specified an exact pay rate ($60k) that only management would know about since discussing pay had consequences here; which was by the way, highly illegal. This is a tactic to pay the lowest possible salaries. Anyway, $60k for a new hire with some type of degree or boot camp certificate is very low anyways especially given the cost of living of Austin. It doesn't matter if it's their first job with no experience. Plenty of companies pay well above that even as first jobs. Also, although experience is valuable, that shouldn't be a reason to pay well below market rate. The business is still getting labor/work done in return for the pay which is, in my honest opinion, very valuable. Frankly, more valuable than any compensation you're getting in return. The "experience" argument is also another tactic by management to pay you the lowest possible. This argument is also flawed because even the more senior employees were severely underpaid and they're just now realizing that since their looking elsewhere after being at the company for so long. In fact, none of the "engineers" made six figures because the company "couldn't afford it". Yes compensation was still discussed because it was our legal right.
Last thing is the paid holidays are only 11 as opposed to the 12-15 that the previous review claims. This goes to show you what type of company this is when management has to constantly cover up bad reviews with good ones shortly after the bad reviews are written.
All in all, this is a good company to earn some experience and move on. Nothing special and staying here will make you pretty miserable.
