Pros
The branding that's been done at the Nerdery is amazing - tons of talented folks on our Marketing team. "Fringe" benefits: - Dogs at work - Free Breakfasts - A concierge department (who's focus is, "keeping butts in seats") - Tons and tons of beverages - Somewhat flexible schedule... if your manager approves it.
Cons
- Amazingly smart people, but folks often go out of their way to prove how smart they are and how dumb you are. It makes it difficult to ask for help when you know you will be openly criticized in front of your peers. Core value is humility, but Nerds and President tend to forget it. - Random and sporadic lay-off's. (Even though we were told they would stop?) - Freaking time-cards. Figure out a way to charge on a per-project basis. - Pay lags the market in Dev. Management has obviously not done any market research. - Medical/Dental/Vision programs are meh. When I tried to ask the "benefits guru" about our plans, she was uninformative and condescending. - No professional development/personal growth. - Very cliquey. If you're not "in" with the right people, you will not get to work on interesting/challenging projects. - Idle time for a large majority of the dev team is high - Sr. Management is out of touch with the needs of staff. - No opinion on the CEO - he wasn't around after my first week of work. Met him during my orientation and never saw him again save for Mind Melds/random presentations on Friday's.