Pros
Atlona, birthed out of the former Lenexpo, has proven to a niche industry that a focused dedicated staff can topple even the giants that rule that space. Historically, they came from nowhere, and took on entrenched market leaders, like Gefen, while staving off new competitors like Wyrestorm and Hydra. Where are those companies now? All of them sold to some larger company. Their owners threw in the towel. Hydra was hanging by a thread until it was rescued. I look over the reviews on GD, and see the jaded 1 star reviews from former employees that all left with a grudge. Having worked there from the humble beginnings of Atlona, from more that 5 years, I can tell you, if what they say was the way that Atlona operated, they would not be where they are. Holding a third of the market. Preferred by installers. so here is a list of Pro's - Connected CEOs. Anyone in the company can walk up and talk to the owners of the company like they are peers. they communicate openly to everyone. They listen, absorb, and are willing to change their understanding of a situation. - Culture. I have worked for publicly traded companies that banned the sale of girlscout cookies, would not allow employees to play basket ball on the premises, did not have Christmas/holiday parties, etc. All out of fear of upsetting an employee. Atlonians know each other, accept each other, and have fun together. - Group Learning. To the people who act like experts and have nothing to learn, I say what you don't know could fill volumes. At Atlona, I was constantly trying new things, which took learning new things. Every step of the way was supported by the Owners. Often they were so interested that they would join me in the Some of the skills I picked up there i was able to utilize to grow the business. Some of the skills I picked up only recently panned out to enhance and advance my career.
Cons
- Turn over. if you drop out of the sky from some larger corporation, and take a position at an SMB, unless you end up falling hopelessly in love with the gig, you are not going to last long. 2008 through 2012 was post-apocalyptic as far as the job market was concerned. The recently unemployed were crawling out of the wood works. Each of them came with their own understanding of how things should go. They all ended up leaving. Many of their reviews are below. - Focus is changing. Now that Atlona is shifting its focus toward a massive commercial market, from a niche market, it's almost as if their entire branding and marketing machine has to restart. The crossover from Residential Custom Installation, to Commercial applications is not enough to support the same growth percentages as was seen in CI. From a disconnected employee's perspective this could look like a lack of investment in what they find important. Where is my budget? it being reinvested in turning the ship toward new, more profitable, waters.
