Pros, Cons, and a surprising amount of typical startup faux pas
Pros
1- WFH is a realistic option - and with such a chaotic office environment -it's nice that they don't worry if you WFH. 2 If you’re looking for a cool crowd and mostly genuine people to collab with, this place is great. Most employees here are awesome and fun. All you need do is be cool, and don’t make waves, specifically: 2a - Don’t point out the trainwreck clear as day on the horizon, let them take a month, exhausting all other options and figure it out when it’s truly on fire. 2b- If you must point out the fire, do so only once, and then perhaps consider getting a tongue piercing the day they see smoke.. That should keep you from those pesky moments where you’d like to remind them you offered this idea more times than you should have to. 2c - If they tell you to do something that violates the basic principles of whatever scientific background you have, for goodness sake do it! Engineering discussions are seen as argumentative so does citations and peer reviewed consensus, on best practices - they don't want to hear it. 3 Tech stack is fabulous - it'll be highly in demand for your next career move. 4 Dev ops is better than lots of places - and it's decently complicated so that's an achievement.
Cons
MediaJel is trying to do a lot of different things with people they already know, if you’re reading this in hopes of gaining a better insight into them, then you’re probably not *in* the good old boys club. And it’d be really great if you were, because then you probably wouldn’t have to worry about the things i’m going to discuss. 1 - Computer science fundamentals are not considered when making engineering decisions. 2 ‘Good ideas’ flow from the top down, Doing what you’re told wins out over doing what's right, even if it's one of those classic "no no's". 3 - There’s a pervading fear of conflict - engineering tradeoff discussions are hard for some engineers to handle and turn needlessly personal. When conflict-avoidant types finally say something - they’re ready to explode. Quality naturally suffers without constructive conflict. 4 -There’s a lack of commitment to a thorough process, which leads to bad decisions getting baked in - only to discover a month later. End runs around ‘the process’, imaginary 'lines in the sand', inattention to results causing late pivots, etc. 5- There’s an avoidance of accountability: even the craziest lies aren’t even looked into, or the simplest design patterns entertained - when the good old boys need someone to shift blame onto - it could be you. 6 -Lack of product focused production: it's an "engineering for engineers' sake" kind of shop. Upside: the code looks great. Downside :The product suffers as engineers spend time perfecting things that weren't broken. 7- It's a cannabis business - sometimes people get too high to understand things, or too sober to preclude mood swings that cause angry, rash decisions that have, and will cost a ton of money. 8 investors loom large - Ever had a crucial team mate pulled off a project because -some-other-company needed work done? No you say? sounds crazy you say? This company should hire someone you say? Get used to it. 9 investors loom large - The worst part is that C-level execs will knowingly create scapegoats to sacrifice for investors to protect mistakes made by the 'good old boys'. Even if you are the one who points out the costly mistakes well in advance - they might blame you for it when they finally grasp the concepts at play. 10 - 'Make work attitude' - This is really interesting juxtaposed to 8 + 9 but there's also this attitude that: because nobody really has any idea what engineering really does 'we can stretch this gig out forever'. Non tech leadership falls victim to the oldest software contractor tricks in the book without ever checking into it. 11 Lack of leadership - you know, the real kind. Where leaders realize it's a collaboration, give credit, take responsibility, foster actual teamwork, perform due diligence, hold people accountable, lead by example, lead from the front. 11 Recruiters - listen up - they break agreements with recruiters and stiff them in the hopes that working with them in the future is more valuable than collecting on what they are currently owed. It makes for awkward moments..
