Pros
- The culture at Videon is honestly great. It is easy to get involved in any of the sub-groups there such as the group that goes out for lunch time bike rides, or the group that goes on frisbee golf outings. Most everyone is friendly and accepting. Dogs roam the office, and there is no firm dress code (I wore jeans/cargo shorts to work every day). Beer is commonplace on Fridays, and there are often events after hours. - Coming/leaving the office is generally well-received. I was able to leave any time I needed/wanted to and nobody seemed to mind, as long as you get your work done. - All of your coworkers will be at least "solid". I didn't think there were any obvious weak links in the company employee pool. Kudos to the hiring process for keeping under-performing employees away. There are also a good amount of senior team leads which elevate the engineering team. - The company philosophy is very employee-centric. At one time I wanted to work at home for a few weeks due to health reasons and my request was met with no push-back. In fact, the team did everything it could to make the process work for both parties. - Compensation is open to negotiation. When I made the transition from intern to full-time, I thought my initial offer was a bit low. After working directly with the CEO, I walked away with a compensation I was pleased with (I actually ended up with more than I countered with). When I was doing my exit interviews I was also offered to negotiate compensation again if that was a reason for my leaving (it was not). - The CEO tries to cultivate a feeling of family within the company. Sometimes this is somewhat over-done in my opinion, however I feel that it's better than the alternative of not trying to cultivate this feeling at all. - The IT department is a real strong point in the company I think. I received 2 computer upgrades and a hard drive upgrade in the 3 years I was there, without having to ask for any of it. Also, problems either company wide or individual are handled quickly and efficiently. - The building itself is very nice. The engineering side of the building has undergone a renovation downstairs, which made the space very nice. Tons of windows and natural light make the physical environment inviting and nice to work in. Also the full kitchen, theater, gym, and locker room with shower are all great benefits. - Shortly after I accepted a full time offer after my intership, I was given club seat tickets to a Penn State game, seemingly as an extra bonus for getting hired. This was a great gesture. - Daily work is generally low-stress. The scrum process that was implemented helped me to feel comfortable in what I was currently working on and the path we were taking as a team. Overall the engineering processes are solid and well constructed. The meeting load I would say is moderate. Not a crazy amount but not meeting-lite (this is just inherent in the scrum process).
Cons
- Unfortunately the biggest con for me is the main reason I left. Over the past few years there have been several sets of layoffs and a large amount of resignations both from higher and lower positions. This has left the company and its employees in a state of unrest which will need to be righted before the company can get back on track. - I found the transparency from the CEO to be lacking. During "state of the company" addresses, it seemed as though we were always in a perpetual state of a positive outlook for the future, even though that was not the case as showcased by the few sets of layoffs. Obviously you cannot go into a situation like that and tell your employees things are looking glum, but I would have appreciated a middle ground. - The flex time mentioned in the "Pros" is nice, but there are morning huddles which are mandatory which creates a hard start time in the morning. Mine was 9:30am so nothing out of the ordinary, but the idea of flex time is not necessarily complete. - Often during company meetings or get-togethers, stories were shared about things like previous company outings like Christmas parties or rafting adventures and how much fun those things were. This was probably great for people around for those times, but I felt alienated in those times. It felt like people were talking about their "glory days" when I was trying to create my own "glory days". It made me feel like I missed the best of what Videon had to offer. - There were times when I was asked to work late/weekends when demos were imminent. In my experience, the teams here are very demo driven, so if there is work to be done before a demo you'll be working late or over a weekend. In my 1.5 years working full time this only happened a handful of times but when it does it is a stressful time, especially considering CES (one of the main demos Videon concerns themselves with) is around Christmas time.