Pros
It's been a few years since I've worked at Suvoda, so I've had a chance to reflect on my experience there and how it has impacted me today, personally and professionally. Here is what stuck, and how it formed my perspective on career culture today: Personally: -Friends who I still have to this day, who have also since left the company -Fond memories of lunches, office events, company happy hours and holiday parties Professionally: -Learned how to identify "office politics" -Learned that good employees do not translate to good people managers -Learned to thoroughly verify a job description before accepting -Learned not to take a job strictly for the sake of needing one -Learned how to identify a dead-end job vs. a fulfilling career with meaningful opportunities for growth
Cons
As I alluded to in the Pros section, what stuck with me after nearly 3 years away from the company were the friends I've made and the memories we shared. As nice as this sounds, this is not what should define a positive working experience. The people were the best part about Suvoda, however they were also its greatest downside and will become its most treacherous pitfall. The company as a whole is brimming with bright, young, charismatic people, many of whom are recent graduates, and the others are a combination of mid-20 somethings with a few years work experience with the trend showing that those who have stuck around have been promoted to PM and other leadership roles. Many of them have worked together at the previous incarnation of the company, and/or have never worked elsewhere, thus being indoctrinated with the their methods of operating. No one that I'm aware of has had any formal project management training/accreditation, let alone people management training, and those at "the top" have created their own social circle - the mantra of which being "if you're not happy, then leave." The line between personal and professional relationships was crossed on several occasions, between inappropriate behavior between junior/senior employees at happy hours/holiday parties, hiring direct relatives of current upper management, and even trying to keep a recently-fired employee quiet about the fact that the company would be paying them a severance package. This would not fly at a company that had any kind of moral code of conduct. Before I applied to the ad online, I read through the APM job description and was pleased. University-style, on the job training? Cool perks of a start up? Working on a dynamic product claiming to revolutionize the IRT space within clinical trials? Learning project management skills that could be transferable to another company in the future? Sign me up. Little did I know that the "training", which was allegedly going to be temporary, was actually working Suvoda's customer care hotline and dealing with support tickets for almost a year, in addition to my own responsibilities of "associate project management" (translate that to: technical document creation/maintenance). Combine that with the fact that there was no formal project management training, I slowly felt like I was stagnating as time passed (for those reading, that is not something you ever want to feel in a workplace, and is a clear indicator that you should leave). I was discussing with one of my peers at the time and they claimed that they simply took the job at Suvoda because "they needed one and the hiring process was essentially overnight." That may be good news for those who are desperate for work/income, but not if they contribute to the insanely high employee turnover due to the aforementioned conditions. Also, I find it somewhat suspicious that they never called a single one of my references prior to hiring me. This may come as no surprise, but I left voluntarily in favor of a job at my current company after about a year and a half of working at Suvoda. Here, I was granted the formal training I was looking for and have actually learned concrete skills allowing me to make meaningful contributions to the business. And, I am recognized for it. It was a 180 turn in the absolute right direction.