Pros
Freelancer is truly a breeding ground for opportunity. If you are proactive and have an idea for something, the great thing about freelancer is YOU can make it happen. Change and good things always start with you! The culture at freelancer has changed during my long tenure here, it used to have a very strong startup vibe but that has toned down and become this middle ground between startup and corporate. I guess this is natural as the business has also matured quite a bit over time. This place has some of the best product managers and engineers I've worked with. Their growth team was also really awesome in the earlier days Their use of data science, AB testing infrastructure, and dashboards is impressively some of the best you'll come across in Sydney. During my particular role I was given the opportunity to build and manage my own team. You wouldn't get this opportunity from alot of places where you'll get to do this from scratch! I was given the opportunity to progress during my role and I've forever grateful for the learnings and hardships during this journey. You'll get to work with some crazy intelligent people and honestly I learnt so much from everyone while I was here. I've made life long relationships with colleagues and had some pretty great memories too. If you want to be challenged, get thrown in the deep end and walk out into your next job almost indestructible, join freelancer.
Cons
I have a very polarising opinion on the CEO. I love his honesty, but at times I wish he would be more empathetic and be more open to listening to alternate views more openly. He is a highly intelligent person but he can very extremely rigid. In my particular role I faced a bit of micromanagement at times. My advice on particular hiring decisions were also ignored many times.. and subsequently left some unfortunate holes. It was embarrassing to say the least because I had to correct these mistakes from senior management and HR. If you are looking for a creative role here be very cautious as I've seen quite a high turnover rate. Please research into who is leading their creative teams and really dig into what their expectations are for you particularly if you're hired as a designer. CEO has a very subjective view on the role and quality of design in the company. You'll have the opportunity to work on some pretty big projects but I've seen great work shot down many times because of bias and unclear expectations. I hope they improve this and give design a more respectable seat in the future. They do not hire based on a diversity quota. If this a pro or con, I'm not sure honestly. There are not many females in the company in technical roles or female leadership. If you are a female you may feel uncomfortable because I can assure that you'll be a minority (in their Sydney office at least). Work-life balance not great at times, but I think this also depends on your particular role. There is a high amount of pressure to perform and reach targets.