Pros
Great place to start a career, new grads and entry-level seems to be the priority. Great people to work with, strong sense of company culture (sports, gambling, drinking, alma mater loyalty). You get the help you ask for, if you know who to ask. If you stick around and put in the hours and get the right opportunities, there seems to be a robust employee ownership and bonus structure once you "enter that inner circle". I saw some people do really well for themselves, and everyone who started there left with good references.
Cons
Before employee ownership, the prevailing attitude was that employees don't get paid very well until a 6 year vesting structure gives you access to the company's 401k contributions. People leave at their 6 year mark unless they have ownership. "Get a job, get licensed, and get out" means I saw a lot of turnover. Fluctuating overtime policy, the incentive of putting in hours beyond the required 40 seems to be elusive and vague path to employee ownership, based more on relationships than merit. Relationship-centric career advancement doesn't account for issues of DEI, leadership doesn't seem to have a handle on what equity means, urgency culture and "code minimum design" prevails. Company attitude seems to be that you can't teach somebody emotional intelligence and employees don't deserve advocating unless they're already being advocated for. Mentorship is hit-or-miss just like with career growth. If somebody doesn't know how to advocate for themselves they're out of luck. If you don't know where you need help or feel emotionally safe asking for support, it's on you to find out, which is fine, but my opinion is this supports an environment of implicit bias, which I think is pretty normal in the industry and white-centric Portland in male-centric land development. Typical career growth seems dependent on the turnover culture.
