Great company culture
Pros
Strong emphasis on work/life balance - This was a big change for me from my previous job. They really mean it. I asked, and was told directly by a VP that they don't believe long hours and lack of vacation is sustainable, and in the long run, it's not just bad for the employee, it's hurts the company. I asked for a few days off once to visit my daughter, and my boss said, "Why don't you take the whole week?" Never had a boss suggest I take MORE vacation time before. Vertica folks work hard, tremendously productive teams, but if you need time off, no one questions that. Everyone covers for you, knowing some day, you'll cover for them so they can take time off. Oh, and my email gets very quiet on the weekends. No one expects you to be always on. Your downtime is yours, to spend with your family, or play in a band, or write a novel, or whatever. Great teamwork - everyone pitches in. I've seen zero sign of wrangling for position. Everyone just jumps in, and says, I can help with that. Or, I'll do that part. Everyone gets credit, so no one feels like they have to fight for it. A culture of appreciation - lots of thank you's, and shoutout's, and credit given. We had to do a webinar at 3 AM to coordinate with European partners and customers. A few days later on a company call, the CEO called out the whole marketing team for going above and beyond. That's just an example. Happens all the time. Encouragement to grow and do what you love - I love public speaking. I know, weird, but I do. I also love writing, and digging into technical details of how things work, then explaining those. (I was a teacher in my youth.) My boss at my old company would do things like, Hey, you come up with an idea, write up a proposal, prepare a presentation, and if it gets accepted to a big conference, we'll have someone else present it. Oh, sure, we know you're a good presenter, but this other person has a higher job title. Here, my boss has encouraged me to write a technical book. Bragged about how many conferences I speak at, and pointed out to the higher ups how economical our department is, because I speak at many conferences we don't sponsor. I don't have to do a marketing speech for it to be good awareness building. I can explain some technical topic that I'm fascinated by, and simultaneously spread the word that Vertica does cool stuff in this area. It doesn't cost the company anything, but my time, my travel and food. (Or not even that, with so many remote conferences now.) At some point, my boss said, wouldn't you like to go to Europe? We could use more of a presence there. Be sure to apply to some international conferences this time. He asks me what I want to do over time, where I want to go, careerwise, and has encouraged me to learn and do more of what I'm interested in every time. When I pointed out the contrast, he said, why not let people do what they love? They'll do a great job for us, and be happier employees, too. You might be seeing a trend here. This company has the overall philosophy that job satisfaction for employees benefits the company as a whole. It's incredibly refreshing.
Cons
IT - The IT is all done through Micro Focus, the parent company, who has over 10,000 employees worldwide. The IT is slow, painful, distant, and all kinds of time-consuming and frustrating. A few times, I've given up and Googled, gone to Stack Overflow, asked IT friends, and generally experimented until I solved the problem to the point I could work. My first few months at the company, I was given a refurbished laptop with an intermittent display issue. Sometimes, I couldn't work at all. Super frustrating. When both me and my boss requested a new laptop for me, we were told that my laptop was new, I'd only had it for a few months, so I wasn't allowed to get another one. Whee, red tape. Sooo much red tape. Every all-hands meeting, the CEO of MF tells us they're working on it, and I'll admit, it's gotten better in the last year. But still not what I'm used to. Good internal IT service is one of those things that really makes your life easier, and you get to the point where you just take it for granted. Until it's not that good. Then you notice.
