Pros
- Work with highly knowledgeable coworkers - Modern UI Stack - get to work with Angular, Sass, and Gulp - Code reviews from coworkers keep you learning more - The team is passionate about great working software - Weekly treats - Freedom leave policy (no limit on vacation time as long as you get your work done) - Casual Workplace, wear t-shirts - Starbucks is only 2 elevator rides down (aprox 3min) - Performance is focused on results - 25 cent vending machine - free quality coffee (Gevalia pods) - occasional parties/time off after hitting project milestones - I have a great boss I have learned more about new technologies in one year than four years at my previous employer (small web shop). Come ready to learn then dive in
Cons
- occasional nights and weekends especially around deadlines. I have seen this go on for several weeks in a row on some projects. - lots of programming is outsourced. The quality of this code is oftentimes not very good. Birmingham has a very tight market for technology talent and when working on the latest technologies it can be hard to find people. Outsourcing also allows IH to endure the ebs and flows of the business cycle. Still though - finding ways to regulate/increase the code quality of the outsourced teams seems to be an ongoing issue - Most standups are between 8-9. May not be the best standup times for night owls - with new technologies comes new technology problems. You may have to stack overflow some things. Also with new technologies, it's likely that everyone contributing code is unaware of best practices, so there is some teaching opportunities to be had