Pros
Experience. This place will hire entry level people (for entry level wages) and give them real, important work that forces them to grow in their field. The people. ClearView is full of fantastic, enthusiastic and dedicated people. ClearView's demographic is young, too (because they mostly hire entry level people), which raises the energy and mood of the place. Ambition, vision, and growth. ClearView is an ambitious company in an industry that has a lot of room for growth, and they are already ahead in terms of claiming market-share. It may be worth staying with them long term, but only time will tell. The company is growing fast, though. Culture. ClearView has a pretty great culture. Sure, some of it is a bit gimmicky (blind folded obstacle course anyone?), but it is very clear that they want their employees to be happy here (despite low wages). That said, much of the culture has grown organically as a result the young, friendly people. However it came to be, there is always something to break up the monotony of the daily grind, from taco Wednesday's to the rarely used air-hockey table to the constantly being used brain-teaser puzzles. Oh, and we often watch Netflix on lunch breaks on the XboxOne in the break room. Family friendly. ClearView puts on some great events for families and is flexible when family needs come up. Flexibility. Working hours, at least for salaried people and seemingly for hourly people too, are quite flexible. Obviously it depends on your role, but they are quite accommodating for those night owls that want to show up at 9:30 AM and the morning birds that show up at 8:00 AM. As long as you get your full shift in, and while the office is open, nobody seems to have a problem. Also, some people are able to work from home or work remotely. Improvement. This company has improved by leaps and bounds in the time I have been here, and they want to keep improving. When I was hired, if felt like a business ran out of a garage with very little structure or process. Now it feels like an actual software company with key positions filled and much better processes established.
Cons
Pay. Chances are you will be hired here right out of college or otherwise at an entry level position, and your pay will reflect that (usually lower than the competition), but you will be given work that is above your pay grade. This is great for gaining experience, but the pay doesn't always grow with you as you become a more valuable asset. The flip side of this is that they will hire you when many other places wouldn't. All that said, if you prove yourself to be a vital asset, they WILL pay you a fair wage if you give them no other option but to lose you. Lack of experts. ClearView likes to hire entry level people for less, so there are not many people here with 5+ years of experience in their field. This puts a larger burden on all the less experienced people to figure stuff out and punch above their weight, which can be a good thing but also can be stressful. If you love a challenge, though, then you will like the work here. Bottlenecks. Management on the IT side is a bottleneck because they don't have anyone with enough expertise to delegate to. It makes it hard to get projects done that depend on management's input or help. When they get the time, however, management is always willing to help and are very much involved in the every day stuff. Benefits. They could be better. Health insurance is more expensive than you would get at larger companies. That may be changing soon though. Poor management on some projects. In my time here, there have been a couple projects that have been managed poorly, either because they were not given the proper time, attention and resources or because they were not given proper direction. One of these led to the laying off of a colleague. He was a talented and hard working person, but they wasted his efforts by changing direction before he could complete his work multiple times, and then they let him go because they never saw his value (or even looked at his work). This was an extreme example, and most of the time people's work is appreciated, but there have been occasions where management has made some mistakes like this. Lack of resources. It has been an uphill battle for some people to get the resources they need to do their jobs. I am talking about software licences, mostly. Sometimes management can be a little too reluctant spend money on that sort of thing, and it gives the impression that the company doesn't have a lot of money to spend on raises, either.