Second Order Effects reviews

Constantly learning in new fields. Get to work on analog design, power electronics, digital systems, and board layout, and spend most of my day working on new designs and schematics. There are many opportunities to work in upcoming fields and physics-y / white paper programs, particularly in renewable energy and medical devices. Learning is strongly encouraged and senior engineers make themselves available to mentor and guide new hires. Benefits are strong - unlimited PTO, free lunch and dinner, health/dental, and 401(k) match. It's a great place to work. Leadership has an open door policy, with open office hours for anyone who wants to talk publicly/privately

- There are infinite learning opportunities if you seek them out (and even if you don't). People have varied skills and levels of experience and are very willing to share. - People are very kind and helpful. Oftentimes they will drop what they're doing to help you or explain things to you. - Projects are exciting and varied. You have pretty significant freedom to work on what you want here. There are a handful of projects happening at any given time that lie in different industries and require different skill sets. - The management structure makes new-hires immediately feel like a member of the community. The relatively flat structure here made me feel like one of the team. Despite having less experience and not being accustomed to the work culture, I didn't feel like I was below any of my coworkers, even the CEO! This is helped by the open layout of the building where interns, managers, engineers, and even the CEO all sit close together at the same desks. On my first day, the CEO struck up a casual conversation with me at the communal bookshelf and I didn't even realize who he was until later that day. - There is a lot of room for career development. If you bring forward a plan to your manager for work you would like to do, show that you're able and willing to put in the time, and demonstrate how it will help the company, you can take control over how you develop your career pretty easily. I came in with a degree in a different engineering discipline, and told my manager on the first day that I wasn't particularly interested in doing work in that field here. He was very receptive and together we worked out things for me to do that aligned more with what I wanted. - The work flexibility is very nice. There is a generous unlimited PTO policy which takes stress out of planning vacations, as well as11 newly added paid holiday days throughout the year. The working hours are not set in stone, as long as you are able to work effectively with team members. This means you can come in and leave at different times as long as you are not affecting the workflow of your peers without notifying them. The work from home policy is also fairly good. While no hard lines are explicitly stated, the company encourages people to work to their preferred style, and have and adjust their expectations in response to COVID-19 spikes and trends. Right now the expectation is default working in the office, but employees can work from home up to half the time if they desire. - The compensation is good. I was ready to negotiate my salary during my hiring meeting, but I was offered significantly more than I was aiming for. This in addition to the excellent benefits, PTO and sick time, and retirement account matching makes me feel well taken care of and valued. There's also catering every day - free lunch and dinner - and a well-stocked kitchen. I really enjoy sharing a meal with coworkers and chatting about whatever is on our minds, what we did over the weekend, or even playing games.