Pros
At Test Double we live our values and thrive on doing great work for our clients. We care about the humans that write the software, and the humans that use it. It is such a great place to work. We are 100% remote, have a lot of autonomy, and we have managed to hire for empathy. We embed with our client teams and meet them where they are. For each client, we balance delivering high quality software with coaching, mentoring and consulting on agile process based on what they need. We joke that our favorite answer is "it depends" meaning we know that context is everything. Each business is unique, teams are immutable, things change over time, balancing the pros and cons of any given situation requires careful thought and consideration. It is a great place to work if you love learning and being challenged every day while maintaining a great work life balance. As far as I know, we have never terminated an employee due to lack of work and we are still growing at a sustainable pace.
Cons
The two hardest things about working at Test Double are: We are sometimes "smoke jumping" in to companies in crisis. There may have been lay offs 6 months before we arrive, or the management is concerned about their employees skills and productivity. This is really intense and requires strong emotional intelligence and clear boundaries. We are growing, but not nearly as big as someplace like Thoughtworks. One impact of this is that depending on the market we don't get as much choice in which client or technology we work with as would be ideal. All our folks, even sale and account management, do their best to match our self expressed skills and preferences to client placement, but the "project puzzle" as we call it is thorny. As consultants we are comfortable with the idea that as markets shift we are the first to be brought on when things improve, and the first to be let go when there is a downturn. We carry a bench, meaning we all have secure employment even if a client cancels a contract, but it can still be stressful when things change unexpectedly.