Pros
I have worked at Code.org for half a decade, and I still love it. I get to help students and teachers learn and use the power of computer science. Computer science can be used in about a million ways, which means we get to work on all kinds of fun things. From Dance Party to AI for Oceans to all of our labs and Hour of Code activities, I have had the opportunity to work on so many fun and interesting tools and curriculum. My favorite part of the job is visiting schools for playtesting and Hour of Code events. Going to classrooms, the kids and teachers have so much energy and excitement. I love it. It's also inspiring to have learning, not profit, as our primary indicator of success. I find myself motivated to increase access and participation by every student, especially those who traditionally haven't had as much opportunity or encouragement. Our team is diverse and amazingly talented. We take our work seriously but never ourselves. We have a lot of fun, and I appreciate the open invitation to be yourself. If you like to dance while you talk on a zoom call, dance. If you are a pajama person, pajamas are fine. You are free to be who you are. The work-life balance here is amazing. I can always have my evenings and weekends free for my family and me. The leadership team cares about each employee and does a respectable job trying to grow and care for our entire team. It's a relatively small company, and each of us is cared about as a person. Working at a remote-first company has given me more time in my day to be with my family and take care of myself. It has also cut down on gas and food costs. It's also allowed my family to move from a high cost of living area to a lower cost of living area, making those retirement goals much more attainable. Compensation at Code.org is not high by tech standards, but it certainly is by non-profit standards. Our benefits and perks are also very good. I have had opportunities to leave Code.org, but I still find myself excited by our mission and happy to be part of this team. I have been lucky enough to have had some bad work situations to appreciate what a gem this place is and what a wonderful thing we are trying to accomplish.
Cons
We are a non-profit that cares about and seeks to address and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in computer science and our team. Our mission and our culture attract passionate people. But "diversity, equity, and inclusion" do not mean the same thing to everyone. We have had instances where we have hired people obsessed with specific interpretations and biases around these noble-sounding ideals. They have used them as both shield and hammer to excuse their personal biases and to try and intimidate co-workers and leadership into submitting to their demands. They put a lot of effort into questioning every decision, critiquing every initiative, and ultimately attempting to shift the mission and work of Code.org to serve their specific concerns- or go out of business. These people have had no hesitation in dividing the world, and our team, into what they deem as saints and sinners. And they are more than happy to take it upon themselves to gang up if necessary and punish non-believers. Examples must be made. It is intimidating and effective. It is also remarkably distracting. Their unrealistic expectations and endless pessimism disrupt the flow of our work. Their obsession with identity politics divides our team into smaller and smaller groups. Their intense moral certainty and lack of accountability or self-awareness make people unwilling and even afraid to speak out against them. Code.org has bent over backward to please this small fraction of our current and former team, but at some point, enough is enough. Code.org has finally reached that point. It is not a pleasurable experience to work with people who have an expectation that this org should change just for them and a desire to see it burn if it doesn't.
