Pros
The employees are all truly wonderful and helpful people. It is a shame to have met under such a restrictive and overloaded environment. We all learned alot from each other whether it be understanding of obscure code related scenarios, detail applications for specific elements, or even just learning to more proficiently use the software we had. We provided each other more than the firm provided us I'd say. I'll miss all of my coworkers a bunch! Even the owner does seem caring... i feel conflicted because he acts caring but then puts profit over the mental health and work life balance of every person in the office, so.... It's hard to determine if the employees are valued or not. I felt the salary offered was higher than an equivalent position in some other nyc firms. But after having worked the hours I've worked... however the sheer quantity of unpaid overtime you end up working probably breaks down to the salary not being quite enough...
Cons
Worked here for a few years full time. Employee turnover I saw while there was insane because of the truly terrible work/life balance. It was dependent on what team you found yourself placed on, although due to necessity even if you weren't hired for certain busy teams you nearly always ended up getting "asked" to assist eventually. While there was allotted vacation time and business hours defined in your contract, in reality it meant nothing and you were expected to work whatever hours past 6pm and on whatever weekends necessary to meet deadlines. And even with perfect time management it became impossible to not work extra hours due to the firm accepting FAR too many projects for the number of employees it currently had. When i first started working there we were paid for OT on weekends. Eventually when nearly every single employee was working weekends the OT stopped. You'd be working a 70 hour week and getting paid for 40 weeks. There were people who mentioned the issues up to those above them. It was always met with dismissal, saying we cant afford OT and we are looking to hire additional help asap. Promises were made and never followed thru on relating to many different aspects of workload, tools and equipment promised, experience promised, and even just the ability to request time off without approval from higher-ups (not HR) approve it only if the schedule allowed (which there never, and i mean never, was time in the schedule). Things would become so terribly busy that 75% of the firm would have to bail on attending a work social event, or leave it early, so that they could stay working late or return to the office to continue working. Eventually social events just stopped being planned. The owner didnt even seem interested in trying to provide balance. One last and fairly major con was the lack of opportunity for professional growth. You were never given opportunities to gain experience in more senior aspects of project management and budgeting, because the firm was so desperate for production man hours. The firm never offered to compensate for passed ARE or ID or LEED exams so no one was really motivated to take them, not that they probably would have much time to study. It was also should be known that employees were offered some compensation or benefited in some way if they wrote a more positive review here, which speaks for itself.
