An exceptional team of individuals, greater than the sum of their parts
Pros
In summary, Alloy absolutely lives up to its name. In both in a professional and personal sense, Alloy is lucky to have some of the most empathetic people I've ever met. This however is no accident - Alloy's recruitment process is very rigorous. I think I'd be hard pushed to find more approachable, knowledgeable and empathetic management than the folks at Alloy. They were incredibly supportive of me as I went through several difficult life changes. Could not ask for more. Alloy was founded by two Mechanical Engineers, who strike a delicate balance of technical oversight of projects with other project and business activities, whilst successfully avoiding micromanaging the rest of the team. I was trusted to present work directly to the client, always felt like the buck stopped with the company founders, and they had my back. Whilst not a big tech salary, for myself compensation was appropriate for a 40-hour week at my skill level in the Bay Area. Based on conversations with clients, we were somewhat insulated from the stress of the environments that Alloy's clients sometimes inhabit. Even remote working in the pandemic, for me, work life balance was highly respected and encouraged. When necessary, going above and beyond the call of duty was always rewarded. Alloy's processes are well defined and are proportionate to the projects they take on. The work is varied, and thus would be a great place to start a career, as a hardware or mechanical engineer. For me, the work was usually engaging and technically interesting, even when it wasn't necessarily life-affirming. As a mid level to senior hardware engineer, I was able to be involved in the projects from initial scoping and budgeting to handover at project completion. Clients we chose to work with were selected based on criteria that included how they would interact with and treat the Alloy team, as well as the type of work. These factors usually took precedent over the money the projects would bring in and the prestige associated with the client, which led to lots of healthy, happy client-consultant relationships compared to some I've experienced previously. Alloy invests in good quality tools, IT equipment and facilities as well as its people.
Cons
The downside of consulting, especially in a small company, is always going to be that work will ebb and flow, with downtime sometimes as long as a few weeks. In just over two years, which included the pandemic, I think I was pretty busy with billable work around 70 to 80% of the time. Note this is at least as good, if not better than at my previous design consultancy. At no point was job security a concern for me. It's definitely worth noting that Alloy has made recent improvements, that more effectively balance being flexible for the client, with ensuring the predictability of flow of project work. This is an example of how they are not afraid to make changes to improve things both for staff and the business as a whole. Considering the aforementioned pros, and my experience elsewhere in the world, staff turnover is pretty high. It's not clear what the answer is for this - some turnover is clearly just folks moving on for personal reasons, or something new after a reasonable tenure. Also the current economic climate and the extremely competitive job market in the Bay Area have an effect, but some may be attributed to the ebb and flow of project work. Of course in a small company that hires exceptionally skilled people to wear lots of hats, staff leaving at all levels has a disproportionate impact on the company. Alloy does its best to manage this.
