Fantastic developer experience - Frontend Developer Fathom London Employee Review

4.0
16 Oct 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

As a midweight developer, there is an exceptionally high caliber of senior and lead developers to learn from, each of which is eager to teach and pass on their learnings. Developers continually strive for simple, maintainable code and although projects can feel siloed at times, regular tech talks and discussions are held to share ideas and learnings across the team. There is also a heavy focus on code reviews, which is fantastic learning resource to both receive feedback for your work and have the opportunity to digest someone else's approach. The culture is incredibly welcoming and social. There are regular outings, none of which feel forced and people seem to genuinely enjoy spending time with each other. The social hierarchy is also surprisingly flat. I've spent just as much - if not more - time with top-tier management than my immediate peers. An interest in cycling and FIFA skills will serve you well here. There are also a number of quality of life benefits. You can attend a weekly gym/boxing /CrossFit class. There's a well-stocked drinks fridge, plenty of snacks, coffee machine, etc. There's also the option to sign up for for a healthcare cash plan that offers a range of heavily discounted treatments and examinations over the course of the year, as well as the regular insurance benefits (health, dental, critical illness, etc).

Cons

Developers should be involved in projects much earlier in the process. I've worked on projects with a waterfall-esque approach, where UX and design pass on their designs as scripture. It would be beneficial to have each of the disciplines collaborating from the ground up. There could be a stronger focus on unit and end to end testing, although that is not always applicable to the project requirements ( e.g. prototypes and proof of concepts). Aside from the founders, there is a lack of permanent UX within the business and sometimes leads to designers inheriting the mantle.

Explore other reviews about Fathom London

2.0
23 July 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very relaxed atmosphere. Free snacks. Good pay.

Cons

Poor management. No idea of the product and service design process. It’s a front-end development house masquerading as a UX consultancy. The management deliberately avoid users assuming they know what the design should be. “Clients come to us for this” I was told. They reject tried and tested design philosophy wanting to always innovate. “It’s the fathom way”. If they could they would stop breathing oxygen to try something contrarian. Constantly producing products that look nice but are not practical or useful to end users is a pattern here. Avoid this place if you want to make useful things. The founders try to micromanage all projects and they don’t listen to the senior people they contract in.

4.0
15 Oct 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I joined as a contractor working on a huge project together with many other senior devs, we were fully independent and had close to no management, the company really relies on the seniority of its people to make decisions on the product and they leave lot of freedom in taking whatever technical path is better.

Cons

The few times i had to interact with the senior management i found them to competent but not the most emphatic people on the market. Also contractors are not treated in the same way of permanent employees in order to push them to join the company permanently.

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