Pros
This product is amazing. Those working on it are fortunate. I spent the first three months at my job primarily doing research on the product, competitors and the market in general in this area. I can tell you that this is a high-end and utterly superior line of network security hardware. It is an exciting time for this business as it goes forward with new launches and fresh ideas. The opportunity that APCON gave me is much appreciated and I go forward into a new career that I would not have been prepared for had it not been for this company. I have great respect for the directors who are some of the most professional and truly gifted people that I have ever worked around. Since graduate school, I have not seen this high level of professional and personal standards that these people display. I fear for the future of this product as, unless it is acquired, it may not make it to the place that it deserves to go. It needs to be set free.
Cons
There is nothing about the CEO that is positive to say here. There is no reason that anyone at all should ever, and I mean ever, have to tolerate such abuse. What it creates is a toxic and hostile work environment. Please read these posts carefully and really think about them. Every person who has written something negative about the company only does so in relation to the CEO, not the product and this means something. I saw the writing before I took the job and I knew that I would be facing a contentious leader but, I wanted the opportunity… I like a challenge and I wanted my foot in the door. I have not left a job in the way that I left this one since I was 16 years old, working in a corporate sandwich restaurant. I would never leave a company without giving notice and I would never leave a job that I loved so much if I did not feel that it was crucial to my sanity and health to do so. Let me preface that with this: I have a Masters degree; I've also had many jobs... none of which fired me, none of which I left on bad terms (except the old sandwich shop) and none of which didn't either outsource or downsize in the extreme. I have been known in all of my jobs as one of the hardest workers with great results and stunning reviews from clients and the people that I've served. I am a Customer Service, in the extreme, Professional… I go above and beyond for my customers, clients and candidates. At this job, I received praise on a regular basis from those people that I came in contact with outside of the company. However, inside... no one seemed to know or care about this. I felt like I worked in a tense and cyclonic vacuum... After several people in my department left, I took over a plethora of work that I was prepared for but, not entirely versed in and I made incredible progress and sorted out what could have been a major bump in the road for the company. I received the highest compliments on my performance from candidates and I am grateful of that. However, no one… not one person… really cared. On my last day, I had my first real confrontation with the CEO. I can tell you that this “conversation” was by far the worst one I’ve ever had with anyone that I have reported to, and I’ve had some “interesting" leaders in my life. This was not interesting; to me it was scary and odd. I stayed completely calm the entire time while holding onto my folder with a death-grip… not because I was scared of this man but because I was afraid that I would pass out from anxiety and shock or I would unravel and tell him what no one else will. I am an honest person. I have no patience for fake behavior and therefore, unless I was talking to a client and telling them about our CEO in the most gentle (and not entirely honest) way that I could, I stay very real with people that I work with and for. Being real here does not work. Every word you say can be whipped into something that means absolutely nothing that you meant it to mean... every action and word is scrutinized in a way that I've never seen before. It is not productive, not at all empathetic and most certainly, not at all reasonable. There is not trust, no loyalty on the part of the CEO and no way to discern where you stand. This CEO displays the most abusive, volatile, hostile and confused personality, like a chaotic hubris, that I have never been witness to. What is displayed comes at you in waves and flips back and forth from one contradictory thought to the next causing a build-up of anxiety in the entire room, it's as if you are standing before a scene in a movie that is about to turn into a major explosion or crash. There is no clarity at all in the way that this CEO displays himself. One has no way of navigating it and no way of knowing what to do with the run-away-train that is before him or her. All I know is that I was not going to stay and be the brick wall that he so desperately appears to want to hit. I wish you all the best. Read carefully and think critically.
