Pros
SurveyGizmo is a fascinating place to work. Because it aims to grow at a rapid rate, it is both exciting and fun and frustrating and demoralizing. Such is life in my humble opinion. The energy of the company is driven from the CEO, Christian Vanek. I don’t have a large amount of experience with CEO in other companies but this one is very much like and unlike what I understand a CEO is. He is brilliant, energetic and very generous. He is also challenging, changes directions quickly and demonstrative. I came to view these pros and cons as a net positive. SurveyGizmo has a lot of benefits. Education: If you want to build your skills, there are plenty of opportunities. If you complete your job tasks, there are dozens of things they will pay for so you can learn. A Lynda.com account is a wonderful resource for so many things. They will also order any book for business education purposes. You can also make a case for assistance for online classes to aid in your skill building. Healthcare: SurveyGizmo has great healthcare benefits. They take the time to teach its employees how to save money on health and save the company money on healthcare. The goal is to get 100% coverage for all employees through good finance practices. New benefits are added every year. They are also willing to contribute toward gym memberships, bicycles or anything that will help you be more physically fit. Office Amenities: Food and beverages that usually benefits everyone. Donuts and Bagel Fridays are a fun touch. Community bicycles for taking a riding break. Happy hour beers are always available and the selection is great. They also offer a cab service available for emergencies or when you find yourself in a situation where you shouldn’t be driving yourself. There are many others I can’t recall off the top of my head but they experiment with different things to increase employee satisfaction. Compensation: I’m a bit of an oddball in this area. I feel like I had an excellent salary. I weigh all of the other perks in the equation. As a manager, I saw an evolution over 6 years of paying employees appropriately. The director of operations is very proactive in correcting salaries to meet market expectations.
Cons
SurveyGizmo’s Benefits come with some costs. Changing directions: I believe a company needs to room to pivot or change directions. It can be difficult and I often felt ill equipped to manage the sudden direction changes. I believe the management staff understands this and is evolving to handle it. Many of us were learning on the job. Couple that with swift changes can often be confusing. So if you’re able to thrive in that environment and have great change management skills, you won’t have a problem. Lack of Experience Management: Throw me in this mix. I felt a little over my head at times. I think I would have benefitted from mentorship internally. My understanding is now SurveyGizmo is really investing in experienced managers. The managers I worked with were great people. I just think we were asked to do things that were out of our zone of experience and there was sometimes little patience to learn over time. Again, I learned a lot from working with the other managers and appreciate the comradeship and knowledge they shared with me.
