Pros
we are doing new things every day and I am constant learning, working on things well outside the realm of engineering, you definitely need to be a jack-of -all-trades to succeed here. I love to learn and this is what keeps me here. lots of free snacks and drinks, but some people hoard them at their desk so they are not always available. lots of cool department outings and happy hours, though they are sparsely attended. for a startup really good IT and software support, we have all the tools we need to get our job done.. though sharing licenses is always a constraint. pay and benefits are okay, not bad but not great. the company has something like 75% of the market, it'll be really difficult for them to fail, they are the EV charging market.
Cons
engineering documentation is absent. There has been an ongoing battle on simple things like part numbers and part names for well over 2 years. There seems to be an active resistance to documentation since its very anti-startup. Projects don't have requirements and they are based on the opinion of managers who's opinions change requiring constant rework/redesigning. They don't do any design reviews, very surface level engineering analysis results in catching major design issues during validation. products shipped are bandaids on top of bandaids. I've noticed over my time here every engineer and manager that I would consider excellent has left the company. and those leftover are who are at the wheel. I think all young companies have growing pains but I don't see things changing or getting better, if anything its getting worse. no career ladder exists, and there is no transparency on what you need to do to progress your career, it seems if managers like you, you get promoted. the unlimited vacation is an unofficial 4-week limit for everyone, and we were explicitly told that they changed to the unlimited policy so they didn't need to cashout people when they leave, vacation approvals are difficult to get approved.