Pros
The mission is amazing and seeing the impact of your work directly is incredibly rewarding. We hear from our members every week and the stories of the impact we've had on their lives literally bring me to tears, it's just incredible. Engineering is such an amazing group of people to work with. They do a fantastic job of hiring people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Whoever you are, there will be a place for you and you will be supported. The company is really hitting their stride lately, consistently exceeding growth targets and this creates so many opportunities to grow your career. The opportunities will literally be falling at your feet and sometimes it's hard to know which one to take and run with, but if you can pick the right ones and execute, you will be recognized. The Chief Product Officer is a former engineer and understands the importance of the engineering behind the product. He's been incredible at crafting a vision we all understand and work towards through our product and engineering strategies. For other ideas, we have hackathons and these have led to actual products going out the door and becoming successes with our members. If you just want to do your work and collect a paycheck, it may not be for you, but if you care about changing lives and want to be a part of a growing company, it's a chance to do some of the most meaningful work of your life. Overall, I love it. I have never felt more supported and connected to what I'm doing.
Cons
This isn't a place to coast and try to do the bare minimum. There are going to be contractual deadlines to meet and you may need to work hard to achieve them. This along with incidents and tech debt creates a certain level of stress. If you don't really care about the mission and the work you're doing, I think you're going to have a tough time. I haven't had to put in more than 40 hours a week very often, but it can be tough to find a good work-life balance since there's always more you could be doing and so many opportunities to do more. They have been fair with vacation time. You can usually take at least 20-25 days a year and they provide a month-long sabbatical at 5 years. They have even given the entire eng org a day off after delivering a big project. However, I'm not sure that if you're struggling with burnout that they will do as good of a job supporting you.