Launchpad into data science, but company has critical issues to address
Pros
Great launchpad into a career in data science. Centrally located office with good perks (amenities, snacks, social events). Generous benefits relative to companies offering pay in a similar range with comprehensive health care plan. Work can be fun and interesting if you are some combination of lucky and smart. There is a lot that a new joiner can learn. Genuinely great colleagues in general, though many, many have left in recent months and the company culture is constantly changing.
Cons
1. Whatever issues management is having in terms of making real sales and keeping clients in the past year, the pressure is flowing downstream. Managers are pressed to deliver features for an internal product to bring in sales leads. Some don't handle that stress well, which directly affects data scientists working for said managers. Much ego the higher up you go in the company, with notable exceptions. 2. Pyramid organizational structure, with not much room for career progression within CKM for the majority of data scientists at the foundation of the company. Yes, we are functionally a management consulting company, despite what we sometimes think of ourselves. Yes, consulting companies have high entry-level staff turnover. Yes, for every data scientist who leaves CKM, the company can hire an eager, fresh university/bootcamp graduate to serve the same function. But what an employee leaves with them is not just how to make a powerpoint stack, but also the technical ability to write decent code, creative means to tackle a data science problem, and experience with the sort of datasets the company leverages from. That takes time to cultivate. I am appreciative of education stipends and the training modules in development and knowledge sharing efforts, but the continuing loss of technical talent leads to a very real ceiling in the ability to solve problems that company thinks it needs to. 3. Unprofessional communication from management and HR regarding salary at the beginning of the year and, apparently, H-1B sponsorship to many who were led to believe the company would sponsor them this year at time of hire. The recently published employee handbooks were supposed to have answered these points, but do so vaguely.