Company on the rise, and bringing employees with it
Pros
Started as a contractor, good base pay but with no benefits that aren't legally required (unlike past companies where the benefits were similar but with poor base pay as well). With the current hiring model my team uses means anyone they want to keep often becomes permanent within 2 years of contracting. I'm now permanent, great usual corporate benefits, far higher than average pay for QA (again based on past experience with other companies), and I'm enjoying the work environment. Despite my job requiring at least some hands-on work with hardware, my team found a way for us to minimize our exposure to each other during the pandemic. We all work for home, except for one person who handles hardware changes. We rotate that responsibility daily. Work is flexible, getting time off is a matter of informing rather than requesting, and taking that time is highly encouraged. Very easy to set boundaries between work and home life if you have the desire to do so. Company is growing fast, hiring and promoting often. Lots of room to make a mark and maybe even create a new role for yourself if you see something they organization is missing that you can provide. Lots of opportunities to provide your input, be heard, and make an impact that you can see and be rewarded for.
Cons
Workload can be a lot, and deadlines can be tight, leading to crunch time. These crunch times range from 1 week to a few months (not common, just a rough transition into a new project). The company will ask for long hours and weekends, and it's up to you say no if you aren't comfortable with it or just burned out. I've found they're very respectful of their employee's declining overtime. and they don't really pry for personal reasons. The rapid growth of the company comes with the downside that we are gaining new business faster than we can build your infrastructure (new-hires, new teams, scaling up etc...). Can kind of feel like you're working in a start-up that just made it big, even though your in a large and established corporation. They are working on resolving this problem though.
