Pros
1. Excellent training for newbie programmers - If you wish to be a web developer, this is an ideal place to start your career at, PRDXN provides ‘Web Development Bootcamp’ like training for 3 months alongwith tests every weekend to test your skill level. - Every developer is assigned a mentor who themselves are experienced developers in the organisation. They help you by guiding you in the right direction and suggesting improvement opportunities wherever they feel appropriate. 2. Variety of Projects and opportunities to choose from - After the rigorous training, you will immediately be assigned to a project. - The projects range from building tailor-made web applications for various clients to adding features to existing Content Management Systems to helping scale e-commerce stores, among others. - You can choose to work with multiple technologies or become a specialist in one and help the organisation. This of course will depend on the decision of the management and your performance and availability of resources, but generally management listens to your requests/opinions which I will cover in detail later. 3. Small teams = more responsibility = better opportunity for intellectual growth - Most of the projects that you will work on will have a team size of 2 to 4 (very rare) developers. Since the size of the teams are small, you are entrusted with a lot of responsibilities which you would normally not find in an IT MNC. This provides an excellent opportunity to gain diverse skill sets because you will be involved in every phase of the SDLC. 4. Excellent opportunities to improve as an all-round professional - Don’t expect to just stay on your desk and crunch code into the computer the whole day, as soon as you reach a certain level of experience and depending on your interpersonal skills, you will be given further challenges as mentor or being a communication medium with the offshore clients. - These experiences thus enable you to become an ‘all-round professional’ and not just a software developer. - Personally, I enjoyed the role of a mentor the most, guiding someone through the wilderness of Web Development and also helping your mentee evolve from a student to a professional will give you immense satisfaction and is a great learning experience in man-management. 5. Excellent Work Ethic and a forever challenging environment - There is a reason this company has moved from a small office in Bandra to a cramped office in Thane to presently a spacious, luxurious office in a span of 7 years, its because of the work ethic that is inculcated in each employee. They have also seen a growth in clientele, both in terms of quantity and prestige, during this period. - From row 1 to row n, you will never find anyone idling around. The management ensures that everyone is challenged beyond their optimum levels at all times, which leads to growth of individuals, which subsequently leads to the growth of the company. - There is no such thing as ‘bench’ at this company. If you don’t have a client-based project at any given moment, you are immediately assigned to an internal projects - If you are a person who doesn’t likes to be pressured all the time, this place isn’t for you. I had lived 4 years worth of work in my 2.6 years at this company. 6. Open culture which encourages exchange of ideas and opinions - PRDXN has a very open culture, everyone is approachable. There are no special cubicles or amenities for upper management. You can just walk up to the founding members and talk to them at any time. - There are several committees you will be added to depending on your contribution to the company and the maturity of your tenure, wherein you can put forward your ideas, complaints, opinions, suggestions and trust me all of it are heard. The decisions would of course be taken considering the well-being of the whole company which is fair, but at least your opinions are heard. - You can conduct knowledge transfer sessions as per your will and all the resources will be provided to you for its success. - You can suggest cutting edge tools and technologies that can improve a client’s needs or improve the processes/productivity of the developers in the company and all your suggestions will be considered and most of them will be implemented. - A special mention to the ‘Ladies committee’ which was formed to improve inclusiveness for all genders, which is very rare in the tech industry. 7. Business Development opportunities are also provided - If you are ambitious enough and have ideas to help the business forward, to create new income avenues, business verticals, you will be given every tool possible and as much resources possible to achieve that objective. The business owners are very helpful in that respect. Sadly, I failed in that aspect, which is my only regret from that place. 8. The opportunities for project managers are outstanding as well. I don’t think anywhere else someone would risk an important client into the hands of a new project manager, but these guys entrust such responsibilities, which is an excellent learning and growing opportunity if you are ambitious.
Cons
The only major con I feel is that they aren’t competitive enough in terms of salary, which I am sure must’ve improved since the time I left, the wheels were already under motion during my final months of the tenure.