Pros
I never thought I'd be giving a company five stars on Glassdoor, but yet here I am, doing just that. This company really is remarkable in a lot of ways. Let's start with the people. Being a software company, this place is full of bright and talented individuals, and they've recently been hiring a bunch more in all sorts of positions, but mostly around the development team, which is the core of the business. For the most part, the employees are very friendly, and everyone helps out wherever they can, whether it be helping each other on a project, or helping to fix the coffee machine when it stops working. There are opportunities to attend lunch-and-learn sessions (free lunch!) to learn more about the products being created, learn a new technology, or learn about the processes that are used. The trainings are all led by employee volunteers and participation is great. Everyone here seems to take a lot of pride in what they do. The company itself is doing very well, and just moved into a newer, larger office right up the street from the old location. With the new office came new furniture, new carpet, new paint, etc. They really put a lot into it which shows that they really want the office to be a place that you'll enjoy spending time in. The office is very tidy and modern. There are plenty of areas to get away, such as lounge seating, private rooms, a game room, or even the large turfed soccer field just outside the building (not owned by Blueport!). It really is a great work environment. They invest a lot in technology, and there's always something new being deployed, from new wireless to new laptops and monitors. Some of the perks of the new office include the soccer field and game room, which I mentioned before, as well as a kitchen stocked with free snacks, a Bevi filtered/flavored water machine, some wacky coffee machine that will make whatever you want, fruits and snacks, a fridge fully stocked with beer, lots of other alcohol (we'll get to that later), etc. Aside from the kitchen, the company also offers free benefits, and free commuter passes or parking passes. Breakfast is served to welcome new employees, and there are frequent lunch-and-learn sessions where free lunch is provided. Every Friday is a happy hour (that's where the booze comes in) and it's always a good time. There is usually a company outing every other month, which includes food and an open bar at a nice restaurant. The company offers PluralSight access for those who want to watch training videos. There are occasional game nights and other fun events which are hosted by different departments, which are always a fun time and a great way to build team work. There are opportunities to work from home as well, which is a nice bonus, and the office is dog friendly! Vacation and salaries are pretty competitive, too! The culture here is second to none. I've worked at a lot of places where shaming and finger pointing were a regular part of your work day, but not here. There's a great sense of teamwork and pride here, plus the office and perks are so nice that there really isn't much to complain about. The CEO hosts company meetings every Monday and Wednesday to personally discuss what's going on throughout the company, so everyone is kept in the loop. The meetings are 100% transparent and honest, unlike many other company meetings at other organizations. The Blueport eCommerce platform itself is great, and the product team does an amazing job at maintaining and growing it the right way. The development teams use the Agile Scrum methodology for development, which means everything is planned ahead of time, organized neatly into two-week-long "sprints", assigned to team members, and executed on time. At the end of each sprint, we hold retrospective meetings to go over what went well, what didn't go so well, and how we can improve. The feedback is absolutely taken and used, and there are always improvements being made to processes because of the feedback that we get from our Agile meetings. Overall, I love it here, and I can see myself sticking around for a long time.
Cons
As great as this place is, there are a couple of small cons. At the time of writing this, the 401k match is only 1%, which is pretty poor. I hope to see this improve in the future. In addition, some may see the Agile Scrum methodology as being interruptive or distracting, since there are so many meetings throughout the sprints, but I think it helps keep everyone organized and on the same page. Not really Blueport's fault, but something I should point out - The office is located in a pretty nice area of the South End, but it's a couple of blocks away from most of the restaurants or food trucks, which means you'll have some walking to do during lunch time. There are two good places just across the street, though. If you take the T or commuter rail, it's about a 15 minute walk from Back Bay, unless you take the 10 bus, but that only comes once every half hour. I'd love to see more opportunities to cross-train. For example, it would be great to learn a certain programming language, or learn about the tools used to build the products that we sell. Basically, "Intro to X" type of presentations where employees could come and learn the basics of node.js, or C#, or whatever.