I wonder what it's like to work for a real company
Pros
This was a good place to learn and get your feet wet on what good companies and their employees do and what they should not do. This applies to all facets of the company, including but not limited to HR, company politics, software development, training, career growth, company organization, employee engagement, managerial experience and capabilities. Treat this job as a learning experience when you go elsewhere. You will most likely have to self-teach yourself everything, which is good if you enjoy that solitary and probably second-guessing lifestyle. This company has had an enterprise-grade, transformative product for years and should have been acquired several years ago, so everyone could have moved on to something bigger and better instead of unqualified managerial positions. Yes, there is free zero-deductible insurance for you and your family. After seeing much greener grass, I'll pay the $5k/yr in cost-sharing, which is also tax-deductible, for a higher salary and no hostage situation of being afraid to leave "good insurance".
Cons
Add some dis-'s and in-'s as prefixes to the second sentence in the Pros. Communication throughout the company as a whole is terrible. Zero 401k matching. Fend for yourselves there. Company "private stock" cash payout if company acquired, like the free health insurance, is another tactic to keep you there. I think people call that "ifcome". The company organizational structure, which has always been around 10-20 total employees, has gone from three levels of seniority and a wide triangle shape to the shape of a pentagon. The glut is in the middle management/"player coaches" that have overtaken the company. There is a ton of secrecy and gatekeeping involved and extremely little mentoring, so good luck if you plan on trying to have any upward mobility. Example: the company office of 10 would have regular off-site "management" meetings that included 7-8 of the office. Also, excellent software developers are not excellent managers, even if they can be heard pinning gold stars on themselves to anyone listening. For a software development company, you may get new hardware every 6-8 years. Meetings and committees will adjourn spanning weeks and months debating who should get what and what brand is best. The business/marketing hand-me-downs will be given to people trying to do software development. The business and software has mostly been focused upon fixing their bottom line for several years by cost-cutting measures. Has growth plateaued perhaps? Policies and procedures were put in place for such a small company as I guess a ruse to show there is a functioning HR department.
