Pros
-Pursuing your interests and being proactive and vocal about it is encouraged rather than something that management attempts to suppress.
I took a risk joining this company as a frontend engineer wanting to eventually get into the crypto and blockchain engineering space, thinking there may be possibilities for this as Lab49 does fintech software consulting, but nothing was a certainty to me. As a new employee I initially was quite tentative and hesitant about pursuing this as the "new guy", and that I should stay in my lane, deliver well on my client work, and maybe do some crypto/blockchain lessons on the side through the company provided Pluralsight membership... and maybe eventually I could speak up about it after some time.
It turns out, from a chance conversation with a colleague on the same client assignment as me, that there were other individuals interested in the crypto space as well. Not only that, but on a very short couple days notice they encouraged me to join them to go to the Bitcoin 2022 conference where we were able to network and speak with other industry level individuals, professionals, and companies in the space about what they were building and potential partnerships and opportunities. Not only was it a great experience at the conference given my interest in crypto, but I am now assured that there is certainly opportunity for me to get the further exposure I wanted in the crypto/blockchain space here at Lab49 (on top of attending the conference we are very active about it, having several meetings a week about working in the space and discussions in our Teams chat daily).
More importantly, however, I now understand that anything I truthfully want to pursue that would benefit not just the company but align with my career interests is not just a possibility but encouraged. It is great knowing that you are able to speak up about your feelings and desires.
-Highly intelligent, technical, friendly, and empathetic team members and colleagues that encourage and root for you
-Great compensation and benefits
Cons
Nothing that I have experienced yet
