Pros
There are 3 huge reasons to work for Opower. 1. Opower makes a real difference in the world. Currently Opower is savings over 1 Terawatt hour (TWh) per year and this should continue to grow exponentially for years to come. To put this in context the US Energy Information Administration estimated the entire US solar generation for 2013 to be just over 9 TWh, so Opower as a single company is producing 1/10th of the energy that the entire US solar industry is producing. Being part of this company for a few of years you will directly create more energy savings than you will likely consume in your entire efficiently lived life. That is amazing! 2. Opower is an huge financial opportunity. In the last few years the company has more than 10x'ed its value and it is very possible for Opower do this again in the next few years. This growth is certainly not a given, but Opower has a better chance at doing it than most companies out there and for those who hold on to their Options it can be a life changing financial opportunity. 3. Opower is a great work environment. Friday lunches, massages, tons of snacks, showers and bike racks at work, the list goes on. I guess for SF this sort of list is expected but in Arlington and most other places in the world perks like these are incredible and I definitely appreciate them. Also, the most important part of a great work environment is working with a bunch of smart, energetic, positive people and Opower certainly has this.
Cons
Opower is a pretty great place to work but it has some cons. 1. No 401K match, official justification is that Opower does Options grants instead. I get this but honestly I would accept a lower salary to be able to get that same amount of money in an untaxed 401k match and get above the 17.5K personal contribution limit in my 401k and would appreciate that as an option. 2. There can be friction between teams at times. Maybe Sales wants to sell something that the Product Team doesn't want to make, or the Dev team wants to make stricter data specs for easier coding while the Ops team wants looser specs for easier implementations. These conflicts can get a bit uglier and snarkier than they should and it is a drag on all involved. That being said cross team collaboration has greatly improved the last few years but it is still a work in progress. 3. Not enough emphasis placed on growing from within. Opower has grown a ton in the last few years and while there is now a framework for growing from within and a rising tide of internal promotions, there have still been many times in the past when outsiders have been hired directly into senior roles that have lead to reports basically training their own managers and a lot of wasted time. Hopefully as the company continues to grow it will continue to improve its internal talent pipelines and be less tempted by outsiders with exciting resumes.
