Pros
There are six main reasons why I love working at Opower: -Great Mission: It's energizing to be part of a company that is looking to make such a positive impact on the world -- and to see that it's working. -Great Products: The software Opower makes is innovative, usable, and well-designed. You feel proud of what you help create. On top of that, we get to use very cutting-edge technology. (In my past jobs, most of my requests to get the most advanced, cutting-edge tools were denied for budget reasons.) -Great People / Culture: Opower is a work hard, party hard environment where the people are extremely talented (the interview process is rigorous) and a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and there are free massages, cool toys around the office (scooters and ping pong tables!), free catered lunch on Fridays, fully-stocked pantries, and tons of fun parties and events. The list goes on. -Exciting Growth: Opower is growing fast and expanding internationally. That comes with unique challenge, of course, but even so it's fun and rewarding to see the company's products go forward into new markets and languages around the world. Oh yeah, and we went public recently. :-) -Leadership: Alex and Dan (the CEOs) are wonderful and trustworthy, and they've hired other excellent leaders who are moving the company forward and making smart strategic decisions about our future. It's a pleasure working for them. They're not business elites who are out of touch with their staff; they know what we do, what challenges we face, and they're very transparent and eager to hear our concerns and make us feel confident about the future. -Ongoing Improvement: Opower is great at evaluating its employees and overall corporate culture to identify where we're weak and where we're strong. We have regular performance reviews and compensation evaluation schedules, as well as regular company meetings to assess where we stand. This makes for a lot of transparency and ultimately a much stronger relationship between management and staff.
Cons
The challenges of working at Opower: -Work-life balance is a challenge. The people here work very hard, things move very fast, and there is absolutely no end in sight to the vast amount of work we have to do (which I consider a good thing). Sometimes, typically near the end of the quarter, you need to work some late nights and to meet tight deadlines. -Compensation: Opower is an exceptional company doing exceptional work, and I am sure many people here receive above-average compensation, but in my case I feel I am receiving average compensation. However, as mentioned above, I will say that Opower is very good about regular performance reviews and raises. -Benefits: The only complaints I have here are that Opower does not match 401k contributions and there is no tuition reimbursement for people in grad school. But honestly this is pretty equally matched by other benefits that Opower DOES provide, which go beyond just the standard health/dental,etc. benefits: extra cash for commuting, a great culture and office environment, team offsites, ample budget for professional development, tons of corporate swag, and on and on and on. -Rapid Growth: Since we're growing so fast into a large company, it can be hard to keep the culture as lightweight, fun, and non-bureaucratic as it's always been. Moreover, hiring new people and getting them up-to-speed is difficult. We're actively working on maintaining an excellent culture and improving our onboarding process, but we're definitely seeing how hard it can be to quickly integrate new staff and keep the culture fun when there's so much new growth / work to do.
