Pros
I worked in the SN Digital department. The company has tons of money and will spend it on those who ask. The SN Digital department in particular, was able to secure a budget for snacks and fresh fruit and pizza lunches. There are also "reset days" where the teams are able to brainstorm on some new ideas in the morning and then go out for lunch and a fun activity - pizza making, escape rooms, white water rafting. Sometimes, entire teams go away to strategise, and overseas trips are not unheard of. The work space itself was excellent, the London campus was quite nice - plenty of balconies that overlook the canal, and quite a few little breakout spaces to gather your thoughts in. There's even a subsidised canteen and cafe, and the location was close to lots of nice restaurants, a giant Waitrose, the canal and even sporting venues. The work life balance is very relaxed, depending on the team, which is both a pro and a con.
Cons
- Big company, so a lot of money is wasted, especially by having large teams who don't innovate, and are paralysed by the idea of innovating (the fallout from doing migration work for so many years). Work was unevenly distributed within & between teams, so sometimes developers sit around bored. Product managers sometimes scared to do big things, as they don't have full control of the product. - Not everyone in the business understood the value of IT, which also makes innovation very hard. Nature editors didn't always want to do things the digital way, as print was all they knew. Unfortunately they often have final say and the Digital department has to work very hard to convince them to do things that a newer company wouldn't even think twice about doing. - I felt like my exit interview was just formulaic, HR didn't seem to really care about my suggestions. - The organisation itself if very political and there isn't much room for progression. It is very much a "who you know" type of place. If you're not in with the right people, doesn't matter what you say or do.
