Pros
There are a lot of really talented people working here, which makes the day-to-day collaboration great. Also, the product itself is genuinely successful and has a stable, growing customer base. In this economy, it’s rare to find a company with that kind of market stability. There are plenty of complex challenges to tackle, and if you take the initiative to fix them, it's an amazing opportunity to learn and make an impact. In terms of money, the company compensates well. Even though there were no raises this year due to the economic climate, the baseline pay is usually very fair.
Cons
There is a massive amount of micromanagement from upper management. We can spend two weeks planning out a feature, only for it to be completely swept away and changed at the last minute. The CEO frequently overrides already approved product definitions, forcing teams to start over from scratch. This, combined with heavy administrative processes, makes software development incredibly inefficient. On top of that, the product relies on an old "classic" version that they've been talking about deprecating for over two years, but they refuse to pull the trigger because they aren't willing to accept a longer development cycle to handle the tech debt. Communication and transparency are also major issues. When two VPs left, leadership kept it quiet for months while everyone just whispered about it, and the eventual announcement was handled poorly. There is also no real focus on employee growth or clear career paths; we don't have structured PIPs or development plans. Mid-level employees end up stuck in their positions because almost no one gets promoted internally—management roles are almost exclusively filled by outside hires. Finally, the CTO is very rigid with his approach and is unwilling to listen to alternative suggestions from the team.