Pros
1. I appreciate that Core is fully remote and committed to this effort. I live multiple hours from the nearest office and am not looking to move. 2. Unlimited PTO can often be a con at many workplaces, but managers at Core (at least the ones I’ve dealt with) are very good about encouraging folks to take PTO when they can. It also makes worrying about sick days using vacation go away. In my experience, project teams have been pretty relaxed about people needing to take single days off here and there, so I would say this is a culture where unlimited PTO works. 3. Core does make an effort to include and recognize employees through monthly company-wide meetings celebrating almost anything about employees (birthdays, work anniversaries, project completions, compliments from clients, compliments from coworkers, etc). 4. This is a Midwestern company, so salaries will never have the absolute numbers that Bay Area companies will offer. However, for midwestern companies, Core is pretty competitive in the salary department and when converted for cost of living it’s pretty clear that Core pays well especially when compared to other consulting companies based in the Midwest. Is it Google? No, but I would hazard a guess that most of the engineers working for Core could afford to buy a decent house in the regions that they live. The bonus structure is pretty nice too. 5. There is a very clear promotional structure within Core that is explained to you upon arrival. Promotions are not reliant on people above you being gone (thus avoiding a weird competitive culture around promotions that many companies can have), but rather you meeting a clear list of characteristics that are easily accessible. Therefore, you can move your way up the ladder without waiting for people above you to be gone first. 6. Core is a Microsoft based company, and has a very well done Microsoft integration with their business, probably the best I’ve ever seen. They use SharePoint and Teams to their fullest potential in my view. 7. Core is very encouraging of its employees trying to do things like speak at conferences or just attend conferences and will reimburse you for these costs. 8. If you don’t like sitting on the same project for years on end, then Core is a good option as consulting allows you to move from project to project. 9. Core’s leadership is good at talking regularly with employees. I’ve personally gotten to meet with the CEO, CSO, and multiple directors and VPs. You meet a lot during the new hire process. The leadership team seems like an understanding and human bunch, and I’ve never really had a bad interaction or experience with any of the top level executives at Core. You can actually just ping the CEO on Teams and he usually responds pretty quickly. 10. Core has a decently diverse employee base. I’ve met a lot of people from outside the US and from a large variety of demographic groups. Core (at least from what I’ve seen) is a fairly inclusive company.
Cons
1. While I consider being fully remote a good thing, that system does come with its own challenges. You don’t ever feel super connected to people around you. 2. If you like working with a small dedicated team, you won’t get that experience here in any long term way. Teams are constructed only for projects and dissolve once a project ends. 3. This is a software consulting company, and therefore has all the cons that come with that model of business. If you like sinking your teeth into a single product or project for a long time, that won’t really happen here. Not that it can’t (some folks have been with single clients for 4+ years), but that is not the general experience. 4. Your day to day experience is going to be dramatically influenced by the client you’re working with. If you’re working with a great client, you’ll probably quite enjoy your time. If you’re working with a problematic client, you’ll have the inverse feeling. 5. Core recently acquired 3 different companies in fairly rapid succession and is still dealing with the consequences from those moves. There has been quite a high turnover rate from former employees of one of the companies, especially in higher level positions. Thus, it’s fairly common to see people you’ve just met already leaving for a new gig. 6. If you really dig free company merch, that is not something Core has. They do have a company merch store, but everything there costs money, and a lot of it isn’t cheap. There are various ways to get store credit (the monthly company-wide meetings I mentioned in the Pros section are a common one), but still you aren’t inherently getting anything for free. 7. Core does a lot of what I would call “internal marketing.” I’m not really a fan of this but it’s not a big deal.
