Pros
- Small Company with a friendly atmosphere - Ability to attend Conferences and take educational courses - Working with some cutting edge technology, including React, TypeScript, Python - Weekly Brownbags on topics from all spectrums of tech - Lots of opportunities to learn and contribute quickly - The Head of Engineering is incredibly knowledgeable and very approachable Outside of these highlights, I want to highlight that the company is a great opportunity for new developers looking to learn modern day programming. The support system inside the Developer team is strong, so you can constantly ask questions without fear of messing up or doing wrong. I pride BR in their decision to hire new devs straight out of bootcamp and self taught developers, as most companies in the DC area aren’t doing that. The Head of Engineering (as of 11/2021) is super supportive and a great mentor. You are in good hands under his guidance. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, company culture was strong. Some of the project managers you might work with are fantastic and will help you with any and all GIS issues you might have (or point you in the direction of who to talk to). For entry level engineers, they pay the market (roughly $70k a year), but compensation varies as you climb the ladder.
Cons
- The Company goes through hiring waves after a mass exodus event and isn’t proactively growing the team staff. There is a lot of talk about having “bench depth”, but that never seems to be the case. - Some project managers make decisions about changes without consulting the developers on the team, leading to lost work, unexpected (and unpaid) overtime, and long hours. - The founders tend to sour on people when they announce that they are leaving. Instead of being happy that this “soon to be former” employee is moving on to something different, they often come across as bitter and unapproachable. However, the Head of Engineering is supportive (and knowing the Head of GIS, I would assume they are supportive too). - The company has a hard time retaining more experienced developers and rarely hires experienced developers (I don’t necessarily view the latter as a bad thing, as long as the company is able to retain senior level developers). Since this is a consulting company, billing hours and working to complete the job are the name of the game. Unfortunately, some project managers will underestimate tasks and not confer with team members prior to saying “yes” to the client. The client is always right, so that often leads to longer hours to deliver the end product. With this, there is a lot of value engineering (which has its place), but can often lead to larger refactor efforts down the line (which often don’t happen). Work-life balance isn’t the greatest, but that is something to expect with consulting. Being an almost fully remote company at this point might hurt the team more because in office culture does not translate to the remote world.