Startup - Java Developer Outside IQ Employee Review

You can work from home sometimes, direct access to CEO and Product Manager to improve the product, closer to a startup atmosphere. Close to the TTC/subway, lots of food nearby.

The internet in the office isn't setup well and was slow and kept going down, preventing work from getting done. Wasn't allowed to work remotely very often. The furniture wasn't very good (chairs with broken wheels, seats and arms), the bathroom was gross. Too many meetings. Standup meetings in the mornings was useless to more than half the team. The ticket/task list wasn't managed very well and required more and more meetings to make sure it was going okay. One whole day of meetings happened. When there was an emergency (every week it seemed) with the schedule, another meeting took place. No culture other than beer on Fridays and some trips to sports games and things like that. The bad codebase was hidden in interviews and the fact that there has been constant crunch mode for 8+ months was also hidden.

This is a real startup - you have to really be into it to thrive here. It's not Google, so don't expect the swankiest facilities but it does have a downtown location going for it. Product is constantly evolving and the company is finding new markets, new funding and signing up new customers. Access to executives is excellent, and stock options are offered to all. Communication about the company's prospects is remarkably open at monthly townhalls and there is a surprising tolerance for failures

Tolerance for failure can be a downside too, and as other reviewers have pointed out, "crunches" are frequent. Again, some of the infrastructure may be a bit wobbly, they are in an old building that's destined to be torn down for condos (what else!).