Pros
One of the best company cultures I've had the pleasure of working in. I felt like I fit in really well with my co-workers, so I genuinely looked forward to showing up to work each day. Further, my manager was one of the best I've ever had. He did a phenomenal job of setting me up for success while also challenging me and helping me grow. I felt very comfortable working with him and felt as though I was a valued member of the team. The projects were cool and genuinely offered really great and relevant professional experience. I was usually working on a healthy mix of projects with diverse challenges, which gave me an opportunity to learn and grow in my area of expertise. Barrel did a great job of giving me the tools and resources to solve those problems and better myself as a professional. In my time there, I felt as though Barrel, and its employees, made it a point to be a learning organization. It was very important that I learn and better myself while also challenging and helping my co-workers to do the same. I found that to be a really valuable part of my experience with the company.
Cons
Resourcing was often an issue. It wasn't uncommon for team members to be juggling a bit more work than they probably should and feel a general pressure that they should be able to handle everything thrown at them. With that said, management does a pretty great job of identifying and addressing systemic issues like this. Just before I left, they closed the office for an entire week to have a 3rd party company train the whole team on agency project workflows in an effort to improve project digestion. Compensation was a bit lower than market average, but they do make it a point to give you opportunity to review and discuss your compensation.