Pros
1. Summer Friday (half day off on Friday during the summer; about 3 months) 2. Promotion is typically every two years (10% salary increase) . If you have a supportive manager, it can be sooner (1 -1.5year). However, there are too many levels; the current structure is: data analyst 1, 2, data scientist, senior data scientist, data scientist lead, senior data scientist lead, manager. 3. No layoff as far as i know 4. 90% of people are friendly 5. Deadlines are not strict, so you can take extra time to resolve technical challenges. 6. Friendly to new grads. Even if you don’t have much experience, you can get hired. 7. Most tasks are not challenging and easy to pick up 8. They usually don’t have meetings longer than half an hour, which is good as some other companies can have two-hour meetings 9. Monday and Friday are usually chill
Cons
1. In office three days a week. It might be tolerable to some people, but imagine you have to commute when it’s below 0F with heavy snow 2. Most seats don’t have natural light and are away from windows, if you care about mental health 3. Your seat is right next to your manager, which could feel uncomfortable if you prefer less oversight 4. Salary is very low, compared to either the national DS salary or that in Chicago. They don't offer stocks at levels lower than manager now. So your salary is base salary + 10% bonus (end of Feb every year). 5. Team culture varies widely depending on the manager (I have very different experiences in this company). Be sure to pick a good team, or you could transfer to another team, which is not too hard here. 6. They are less and less diverse since they stopped sponsoring international students 2 years ago. Choose your team carefully if this matters to you. It could be all male, or all white, or both in some teams. 7. They used to have very good and frequent free food, but there is less and less food in recent one year. Not sure if they are cutting the budget or what. 8. Almost all mid-level to high-levels are long-time insiders, not someone from outside. This can be pro and con. Pro is they understand the business well, and they know everyone. Con is that they have their own working styles and connections. You can hardly change anything. 9. Sometimes it can feel rigid. For example, you might need one week to finish a task, but you have to report 3-4 times that you are working on it during the week. 10. The technical expertise is less advanced than big techs, so be mindful to think about your career path and next step, and learn something new if necessary
