Pros
My experience with Rightpoint has been an amazing ride, mostly because it's unlike any place I have worked before. It transcends the "Office Space" stereotype in lieu of more of a Google-esque work environment that promotes passion, collaboration, fun and a *real* work/life balance (not the corporate smoke & mirrors version). I am a consultant by experience and developer by passion/hobby, and have found that Rightpoint is a great place to exercise both in tandem. They provide the opportunity for me to make projects my own, and to help make innovative decisions and find solutions by valuing my feedback openly.
Anyway, here are a few of my favorite parts of working at Rightpoint:
Culture and happiness isn't just talk -
Rightpoint operates under what I've found to be the best consulting paradigm: drive client satisfaction by making one's own people happy first. Most consulting companies tend to overbook their resources and underspend on employee conveniences/perks to turn high margins, which (I think) is a very myopic way of doing business. Your employees are the most important resources you have, so why not treat them like it? Turnover is extremely expensive, and people that are passionate about that work tend to over-deliver; you end up winning on both ends.
To uphold these ideas, Rightpoint has put together a long list of perks and programs that include:
- Culture Club: a club whose sole purpose is to monitor the direction of company culture, and to make suggestions to improve & maintain whenever possible
- Compassion Crew: an open employee club that focuses on giving back to the community
- Brain Food Fridays: an opportunity for employees to present any topic of their choosing (usually a new technology or software design pattern) to anyone in the company who wants to attend
- RightPints: Rightpoint has two kegs and a winerator build right into the kitchen, and sponsors company-wide events every so often to bring together employees after hours in a casual setting
- Catered lunches: Rightpoint caters lunches every few Fridays, with the goal of increasing employee fraternization within our open kitchen space
The most important thing to note is that the co-founders - Ross and Brad - go above and beyond to show how deeply they value their employees on a daily basis. These principles are driven straight down from the top, and are no accident.
Come for the work, stay for the company -
There's an old saying not to love your job because your job will never love you back, which is supposed to ensure that you don't over-invest emotionally in a company that ultimately won't make decisions in your best interest. I know this to be true - I've been through it before. You train and gain on-the-job experience on a project or with a client, become a subject matter expert, and sooner or later you or the job/company grow apart. You don't like each other any more, but the company assures you that you're a great fit and that you're truly needed (remember, turnover/knowledge transfer is expensive).
This doesn't work in the long run, and Rightpoint knows it. The amount of input I have into what I get to do in my daily work is amazing. Often, I get to have some semblance of choice in what role I play on a project, or even what work items I get to develop. I have even been in a situation where I asked for a change of pace, and very soon thereafter I was reassigned to work that more fit my personality and work expectations. My experience has given me confidence that Rightpoint is actually looking out for by best interests, and that they will continue to into the future.
They really do hire only the best -
One of the most important hiring factors to Rightpoint is what they call "intrapreneurship," which is essentially one's tendency to turn their work into a hobby, innovate freely and over-deliver. These are the type of people who obsess so much over technology, work culture and clients that they write books & blogs, teach workshops and participate actively in open source communities. The company is far from corporate - with a very flat hierarchy (if you can even call it that) - but still feels very well run. This tends to attract the best and brightest minds from what I would consider a very highly qualified talent pool of Chicago.
One of my goals when leaving my previous company was to learn a ton, since I had stagnated there. Rightpoint has over-delivered in this aspect, as their architects and developers stay quite current with the bleeding-edge technology. I find myself working with the latest technologies, platforms and languages on a regular basis, which is strongly encouraged from those who run our application development team.
I can say that I am an active promoter of Rightpoint and the way they do business. If you asked around town, you would find that our name is always at the top of the list for companies that need work done right the first time. Do yourself a favor and give us a shot!
Cons
There are none worth noting here
