Pros
Amazing engineers and scientists. Probably the most Really Smart people in one room I've seen. Most of the employees are awesome, wonderful people. Technology is pretty cool.
Cons
Worst communication skills in history. I once had to call, email, text and then finally call a coworker to walk over to my manager's desk to get his attention. I was later criticized for not communicating effectively. I sent an email asking about some planned travel, received no response. Sent a Skype message, text message and left a voicemail - these efforts were also ignored. Was then criticized for not "being proactive." Deplorable communication skills. I cannot stress this enough. If you are not close enough to walk over and physically sit on a manager's desk, you will likely not receive an answer to your inquiries. I spent over three months out of my first nine on the road finishing demos. When I took the position, I was told to expect one week of travel every two months, not two weeks per month which it became in the end. Had to fly to the Bay Area on New Year's Eve in order to help the team complete a project. Received great reviews for my work. Fired six weeks later for "failing to perform my duties when I was capable of doing so." When I got the call from the CFO saying that I was being fired, I was told that I'd had several conversations about this with my manager and the CEO. I was not present for any of those conversations. I was told that I had missed deadlines. Since I never was given a deadline, and the only response to my questions about task schedules was "all you need to know, kid, is there's always another demo", I don't see how I could possibly know when something was due, or if it had been missed. Perhaps if they'd responded to emails, texts, voicemails, Skype, GMail chat or that physical letter I sent (yes, really), things could have been clarified. Their employee handbook outlines a disciplinary process including verbal warnings, written warnings, mentoring and determination. For me, they skipped straight to the end with absolutely no warning. They did this on the last day of the month. There aren't a lot of reasons to do that - it wasn't even on a Friday - except to avoid paying benefits for the following month. In short: unless you're one of the on-site golden kids, they'll chew you up and spit you out as they see fit.
