Pros
I'd like to preface this by saying my situation maybe unique. Obviously, every department, job duty, and expectation is different upon the individual working at this company.
My past experiences has been with companies big and small. Many of the things I'm about to list can be considered a "Con", but for some reason, it turned out to be a "Pro" in my case.
Work/Life balance: I feel it's great here. My department and department manager are very understanding of life emergencies or vacation requests. I work past my shift from time to time. I don't feel it happens often. However, when it happens, it's due to its necessity. I have never worked OT to create a mindless report that is meant for another VP that won't read. If I'm working OT, it's always due to an important matter.
The Company: Solarflare, based on what I know, is a start-up company and behaves much like a start up. We have been in business for 10+ years. The reason, based what I heard, is that we couldn't really find the right business model until the last 4-5 yrs. I've been here 4 years. I have seen a steady growth (not explosive, exponential growth) in the last 4 years.
The Company Culture: The Executives here are very personable. I feel this is one of the rare traits about this company. Overall atmosphere feels like a mix between family & corporate. I feel overall that people care about each other here.
The Work: We're constantly faced with new scenarios, new products, new designs, new revenue streams and new accounting treatments. For that reason, most procedures are almost pointless to write (That is in my humble opinion. Although, my department manager will likely disagree.). I can see others feeling that there's "no sense of directions", "chaos", or "poor management". Since my job duties revolved around revenue, when new products don't sell, you find another way, right? So, this is where I feel I'm particularlly biased. We don't necessarily know how much more revenue the new product will generate for us. We think it needs feature A, feature B. When it sells, Great! When it doesn't sell, we scramble to make it happen! It is chaos! It is unpredictable! For some odd reason, I feel it is a great "PRO". O well, judge it for what you will.
The Management: I can only comment about my department. This is where everyone here is different and I'm not sure you'll necessarily experience the same. As I described the work enviornment above, the situation is always changing. You can forget about procedures, standards, or employee traning. They'll only be effective to a certain extend. Since most situations are different, I mostly establish my own procedures and do the projects the way I feel is best. From time to time, I stumble. Actually, I feel I stumble more than I should. Surpringsly, there's not many "blames". I have the luxuary to acknoledge I make mistakes. I acknowledge ways to make improvements. Myself, my manager, my department, and the company move forward!! There's never any finger pointing that I see. If I have to point out one key "PRO" about Solarflare, it is that my department is not judged on hindsight. For that reason, I am in the chaos with my coworkers and we do our best. That luxury alone is why I'm very happy about working here.
That being said, Solarflare is a small company. All of us are multi-tasking and is subject area expert in our respective fields. If you don't know your area, it'll become obvious.
As I'm typing this, I wondered if the readers will feel like I'm working for HR. I don't work for HR. I'm just listing everything in my point of view. Hopefully I don't mislead anyone.
Cons
Uncertainly and unstable revenue. Possibly a little chaotic for some.
