Pros
I'm going to try to focus on some pros that I haven't seen here. Focus is an established company, it's NOT one of those startups where you juggle the roles of sys admin, programmer, tester, talking to customers and working 60 hour weeks (my previous job). We have a proper development process where we make a branch for each feature or bug. We have "some" (emphasis on some) testing on the programming side. And the QA team also test our branches to ensure our customers are happy. Focus hires people with education experience to train our software and various other roles, so we have people inside the company that we can question about whatever we're developing. One of the biggest hurdles when designing and developing software is that programmers don't know what the customer wants. This is not the case with Focus "for the most part" because we can just ask these experts, so that we can make the best product possible. And that is a big win working here in my opinion. I've worked here just over 4 years and essentially most issues I had with the development side of Focus have changed for the better. Focus respects that you work on the clock. Afterwards they don't really bother you unless it's an emergency. So good work life balance. If you want something like an extra monitor or keyboard, they will order it for you. Customers always pay their bills to Focus since it comes from the government, so as long as Focus keeps improving, some other Software Company shouldn't put us out of business anytime soon. There's always an interesting discussion in the office. We have a pool table and dart board... it's a joy to work here.
Cons
I was offered a higher salary job (for a lower title/position) last year because of a referral from prior co-worker and I thought if I stayed here, I'd at least make the same amount as they offered me and here I am a year later still not making that much. While I did get a raise, it is still less than I was offered a year ago. I was also offered a job in Washington DC which again was yet another referral from a co-worker. I have worked at Focus for about 4 full years and I still don't feel like my skills are recognized for their full potential or properly put to use. While I think the salary is fair for the work I put out, it would certainly be nice if the company had a more tailored path for me that would make sense for me to be paid more and really feel more proud of the work I do. And really it's not so much about the money, it's more about the fact that I had the connection with my previous employer and co-workers that I don't feel present with Focus. I honestly haven't made up my mind if I will continue working here or not because of this. I'm kind of on the fence because the pros are so good. I guess you could also say maybe the salary is lower than you'd get elsewhere or maybe not. As a first job, you'd probably get paid well here. But not if you have experience. This is a good place to get your foot in the door. Either way the pros really help outweigh the cons relative to other companies. Besides salary, it's hard to argue any other cons about Focus itself. I've advocated for testing via code for years now and we actually do it to an extent now, but it took way too long for the company to officially commit to doing it and we could still do much better. Everything here happens so slow. I've seen times where the CEO gets all the developers together like we are finally going to get something done, just to be let down that there were no follow up meetings to make sure the goals were accomplished. The goals are made and then somehow just vanish... and no one ever hears about them again or maybe the same goals are made at some later date.
