Pros
Met some really wonderful people here, many of whom I consider friends for life. And, i didn't die from the awful cafeteria food.
Cons
No professional development or advancement structure for anyone, even though they claim there is. If you ask what the company will provide you for professional development, the answer is silence. If you want to rise from an installer to a project manager, that’s ok, but anyone else in a support role the organization is ineligible for true advancement. People are hired and paid according to whim; there is no pay equity among similar job classification. They have no compensation structure for the company as a whole, yet it has grown to 3,000 people And, your manager may make $100,000 more than you. People promoted according to whim – they create new positions all the time just so they can give people huge raises. Lack of diversity at the top. Look at the SC website, and you will get a sense of this lack of diversity. People of color are very few and far between in positions of senior management. The company wants you to think they are squeaky clean in complying with various laws, but in fact there is always a strategy to cut corners and get around rules. If you need help and you are not considered one of the higher-ups, you won’t get the support you need without a lot of complaining. They are SLOW. Your work is meaningless to them. There is no meaningful structure to lodge complaints about how things should run differently – there are no defined ways to recommend improvements or identify issues, even though you may ask. It’s as if they don’t really want to know what you think or have concerns about. This company is growing so fast but without the needed infrastructure. People in certain support roles – HR, Fund Accounting, Legal, etc. – are stretched thin, but requests for help fall on deaf ears. The founders keep saying “we have to do more with less” – but that’s what everyone is already doing. You can’t grow twice as large in two years without scaling some additional support functions. You are considered lacking teamwork if you don’t bust your ass and work large amounts of overtime. And, they will do whatever they can to make sure you are not entitled to overtime, even if your work really is entitled to it. They spend way too much time creating proprietary systems that don’t work, rather than go with existing products other companies use to remain efficient. SolarCity is not the first company to need timekeeping products; why invent it again? The company bleeds money because of the lack of accountability among all levels of leadership. Instead of tracking how money is spent by the people with the most control, support roles become the scapegoats. The company is trying to foist itself as a high-tech/start-up like company, and it’s not. It’s a glorified construction company. Yet the people making decisions at the very top about process improvements, etc. have zero experience in construction. How did the company reward its rank and file when it went public? We got a SolarCity water bottle. A WATER BOTTLE. Meanwhile those at the very top enriched themselves further.
