If you work in IT, don't expect to excel unless you don't care and like staying in the same position for life.
Pros
The company culture, the people overall, the SanMar Cafe' the CEO and his son were all great as an overall whole, and the the laid-back atmosphere really helps for new employee's morale and also can be an adjustment if you're coming from a paint-by-numbers type of a job. The PTO and flexible work/life balance is a great benefit for those that have families and other important things going on outside the office. One of the other things is being able to go to Nike HQ for the employee store twice a year in Oregon and getting to shop there and get some new stuff at rock-bottom prices. The CEO is very friendly and treats everyone like family. Overall everyone has been a great experience to work with and I met some really cool people and made friends as well.
Cons
Specifically the IT Dept. has been a black hole and has had a black eye even before I started working there. There's been underlying issues for some time now in all areas both before and after I've worked there and so far as I know, hasn't gotten much better since I've been gone. When I first came onboard, I was thinking I was to be a regular support technician, and didn't find out until a week later that I was hired as a SENIOR support technician and so not only did I have to learn the job, but learn another set of skills and parameters on-top of that while making adjustments to the company culture. Now, that's not a bad thing being hired above the level that was intended, but a little heads up would've been kind of nice. Needless to say I learned very quickly and gotten adjusted within a short time. (un)Luckily I got an opportunity within my first 4 mos of being there to get a lateral promotion. It was a heavy decision that I took a lot of time to decide upon being that it was a (over)night-time position and it pretty much would've been just me when I got trained up. Well, I decided to go for it and within my first 3 weeks of training I'd only made one learning mistake of which was rectified easily and didn't happen again (lessoned learned). Everything was running smooth after that and I was getting in my groove. Within the last week, I get a call on a Saturday afternoon from 'The boss' and I was told that I'd be going back to my original job and function...(ummm..oookaaay..?) I was left a bit confused and had asked is everything okay and he said yes. Ok then, well, I'd just come in on Monday and talk with him in person to get more info as to see if was something I did or if my job was in jeopardy. Monday came around and as I'm approaching the entrance, guess who pops out from the doors? You guessed it, 'The boss'. He's like, "Heyyyyy budddy! How's it going?" I'm like, "fine" (with a confused look on my face as to why he was there so early in the morning when he usually doesn't come in until about two hours later). I'm then listening to him tell me he's waiting for a 'delivery' of some stuff when he's NEVER done that before (that's part me and my teams job, you get what I'm saying) . So, while were talking, my supervisor comes up with a confused look and says, "I don't like what I'm seeing here" and we both said everything is fine and then I continued to talk for a minute and I just went inside and continued my work as normal. After a week or so, I called a meeting with both my supervisor and 'The boss' just to get some more information and hopefully clear up the confusion as to what happened with the switch. The 3 of us sat in the office and I asked very clearly and directly. "Did I mess up?" He said, no, you're fine, it's not you. I then asked directly because I was at a loss for words, "Did I suck at the job?" He said, "No, you didn't suck". Ok, now I'm REALLY at a loss because if there wasn't an issue, and I didn't do a bad job, then what was the reason that I got pulled from the job? Well, I still don't have an answer to this day (I don't care anymore obviously) and I had left the meeting confused as to what just happened. After that, my motivation and thought-process changed because there was something going on and while he didn't really owe me an explanation. Some professional courtesy would've been nice. After a year of being there and a lot of issues, trials and tribulations I then started looking for other opportunities after I basically was told once again by 'The boss' that there was no room for upward growth and mobility within the IT dept. So, simply put, 'Stay in this same position for YEARS while other people get promoted with less time, knowledge and experience than you and other people on the team despite their low performance.' Yeah, right. So, I chose to leave of my own accord rather than being told to leave for some on unknown crazy reason. If you decided to work there in IT, make sure you're comfortable with staying in your position with no hopes of moving up and/or forward unless you're related to someone high up in the company or like to keep your nose up their butts. I wanted to give 5 stars but took away two because of the IT departments 'Bosses' (not all of them, just some of them but I've heard stories from others about theirs not being great either)
