Pros
I joined Synack 3 months ago and have found the whole company to be supportive of its staff, diversity focussed and with great remuneration, while at the same time not expecting me to work a crazy number of hours each day. The pay at Synack is at a level where if I were earning the same at a consultancy, I would be doing 9 to 10 hour days , together with a few hours each evening on bids and the like. Instead I'm working 8 -9 hours a day, no additional requirement to contribute outside those hours unless I want to. In addition the working from home aspect has allowed me to stop commuting and gives me even more hours back during the day. During COVID, I've had to do kid drop off and pick ups at school and the company has been supportive of this without chasing me on hours or saying that I need to conform to a specific working pattern - I've been really impressed by this. The team are great - supportive and helpful and there is a real team mentality, where people help each other. Another surprising thing is that although the company is now quite large, the CTO still responds to helpdesk tickets and monitors any issues raised! The other staff are all very competent and I've been able to learn a lot from these people, despite having come from a fairly technical background - people enjoy their work and that makes it a good place to be. Having never worked from home before, it's been a change to do this - but I think that's just getting used to that way of working. Synack have supported this as well as they can, with care packages every month or so (last one was a halloween set of swets, slippers and a Synack beaker) and planned meet ups where possible. I think once we've been vaccinated against COVID there'll be more interpersonal contact and more in-person catch-ups. At my last job I had to wait for 2-3 months at times to get repaid for expenses. With Synack, I submit expenses on the corporate system, and have been paid within a day or so - a huge change from previously! Also the corporate IT platform is based on Macbooks, so I've got a good spec Macbook Pro - again a huge difference from the £300 bargain bin laptop I used to be allocated when working at a consultancy!
Cons
I've not really noticed any cons since working at Synack. The one thing to watch for (due to working at home) is that you have a place where you can work and concentrate. When the kids are being home schooled, it does impact on my ability to work, and so I will (from my own choice) do some additional time to make up for the hour or so spent teaching the kids!
