Pros
This really is my Pros and Cons together as the Pros to working at this company outweighs the Cons: * Very Organized – In the early days, everybody had to wear a lot of hats. That is just how a startup works. Some of that meant that employees had to do jobs that weren’t even closely related. What I have noticed is that as the company grows it is allowing for specialization to slowly take hold. ScriptiLabs is a highly organized company with plenty of opportunity for upward mobility as the company continues to grow and expand its services. The internal processes are polished and hold their employees accountable and still allow for plenty of time for administrative tasks. * Improved Hiring Practices and Corporate Hierarchy - I was very concerned with the hiring practices at first. It was so bad that I almost left the company. Especially when they started hiring friends of friends. Management asked me to stay and to give it time…and I did. The biggest problem that I had with the hiring practices was in regards to how young ScriptiLabs was hiring. At one point (2013 to Q1 2014) I would estimate that close to 50% of the company was below the age of 25. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with hiring young, but you have to balance it out with leadership or chaos is bound to ensue...and it did. Couple that with a lack of accountability in the early days and you have a recipe for disaster when you do finally have to hold people accountable. Within the past six months, that has all changed and I couldn’t be happier about it. There are now knowledgeable supervisors in place in every department and ownership is slowly starting to pull away leaving the experts to get the job done. One thing that I’ve noticed is that they are hiring very high level developers that have been in the industry for a long time and truly know how software development is supposed to work. This is very encouraging! * Increased Salaries – When this company first started, the salaries were very close to poverty level. I’m not even kidding. However, that is what a startup is all about, right? It was actually a fun time to be a part of the team despite the low pay. I believed in management and it has paid off nicely for me and I know that is the case for others as well. What I know is that salaries have increased in general as their business has grown. My salary is almost double what it was when I first started. * Benefits – Because this company was bootstrapped, benefits are still lagging. I’m definitely starting to see some signs of improvement here. They have just established a Fun & Benefits committee that meets monthly and comes up with ideas on how to have fun while also addressing the priority for benefits. * Considerate but Demanding Management – Don’t try to work at ScriptiLabs if you are looking for a “chill” job. There is no place to hide. They will hold you accountable but will make certain you are growing and learning at the same time. I’ve never had any issue with management treating me with a lack of respect or any different because I am a female. They are fair, courteous and care about their employees both inside and outside of the business. * Work/Life Balance – ScriptiLabs is very conscious of making sure you don’t burnout. The PTO is around 8 full days the first year…which isn’t all that great. However, it goes to 12 full days in year two and 15 days in year three. The normal ScriptiLabs workdays are only 7.5 hours long. The CEO is a Stage IV cancer survivor so life outside of work is important to him. Having said that, there are still crunch times where we might get a little more work than we can handle during the normal work hours and everybody might work a little bit over to get over the hump. This is rare and only happens every few months. Most employees don’t mind at all as they are rarely asked to work additional time. * Overall Momentum – ScriptiLabs has gone from one employee when it was acquired to almost twenty employees. Management might not understand development all that well but there aren’t many companies that have grown at this rate on a bootstrapped budget. They are now starting to get into CRM integration which will open up an entirely new market segment to them. The infrastructure is in place to scale and the marketing of this company is just now starting to hit its stride.
Cons
All of my Pros and Cons are listed together.
