Pros
Wonderful perks - probably the best in the area. Open dev days were you get to work on whatever you'd like, 2 paid conferences a year (and they cover all your expenses). Everyone gets brand new equipment - macbook pro and cinema display. Tons of free swag that keeps on coming (backpacks, shirts, hoodies, thermo bottles, etc). Health/time off benefits are nice. Laid back, open atmosphere. A beautiful new office in the Merchandise Mart. Catered lunch everyday from really good local places. Snacks and drinks on hand at all times. A wellness room, mother's room, bar with kegs on tap, high end ping pong and foosball tables, scooters to get around the office, etc. And there's even more then that and they are open to new ideas to help improve the space. As for the work, it's challenging and motivating. You may think, "what would I do as a designer at a company like Braintree?" But there is A LOT. The design team is broken up by product, and visual. Product as it states, works on our products - really making a difference in how our users/merchants are able to use what we build, and they make it beautiful. They are a hybrid of designer and developer. Visual works on a lot of brand design including materials for events, new programs, swag, and a lot of other internal projects. They make Braintree look good. A product company like Braintree is a great change coming from an agency - there aren't annoyances like time sheets to fill out or a push for a strict process. There are no pitches you are required to work late nights and weekends on. Rarely will you work on a weekend or after hours. You don't have clients, and you are really able to influence your work. And you're compensated for your work, not how high you move up - in fact hierarchy on the team is very minimal. If you want to be a designer here, you can be a designer. You don't need to stop designing in order to escalate your career. And we work together and there isn't that sense of competition.
Cons
Downsides come from Braintree having a start up mentality - what feels like downsides are more like challenges. We have an opportunity to really shape what we want our team to be - how much process do we really want? Where do we need hierarchy in our team? How do we want to work with the other teams in the office who may have a different mentality and different goals then us? It can be frustrating at times, and not everyone always feels on the same page... but if you look at the big picture it's it's nice to know we can make mistakes and try new things to find what works best for us. Another con in some people's eyes would be the fact we use an outside agency to develop our branding. We split a lot of work between the agency and our visual design team. It feels like 2 different teams working on 1 common goal, and that can bring inconsistencies in the work and goals of the brand. To be fair, our visual team is small - so the task of rebranding Braintree wasn't an option to do in house. It's been a challenge finding a way to work together, and have a voice on the overall brand. But again, it's a learning experience and finding how we can contribute and where we can make an impact is something we are working on and making strides towards.
