Pros
Great co-workers, easy to sneak time in to learn your own thing, an easy foot in the industry type of job.
Cons
Incredibly micromanaged, encouraged to speak up, but reprimanded when its done, nosy office manager, does not embrace new technology, blamestorming type of company, uses the trickle down effect. Let me explain.... I started there not long after graduating college so I was very new to the web development industry. P1S gave me that foot in the door and for that I'm very thankful, I now have a very successful career. My starting salary was $30,000, which come to find out, was considerably under market salaries for that position in Golden, CO, more so even in Denver. I accepted the fact that the benefits weren't good because I needed the job (it was a discount program, not insurance). At first I was really happy, I could wear what I wanted, the schedule was somewhat flexible as long as the office manager didn't catch you and report you to upper management and everyone got along. Not long after I started the company shifted from one kind of website (static) to another (CMS). On a professional note, this was a poorly thought out transition. No one knew how to develop on that particular platform, no training was provided and while we all expressed concern, there was one particular person in upper management that was so convinced it was the way to go that none of the employees concerns were taken seriously. We were deemed as complainers, lazy, and always negative. Because this transition wasn't done properly, clients (lawyers, cosmetic dentists and plastic surgeons) had no limits on what they received. Web development alone would take upwards of 100 hours for basic sites and while myself the developer worked nights/weekends, the only ones that came out on top when one of those clients were finished was management. (I do actually remember one of the developers getting one movie ticket once as a reward for hard work, his wife had to buy her own ticket). I recall on a number of occasions the CEO informing the development team that we made up the cost of 30% of the company. Now they outsource to India. While our skills and expertise are invaluable to most companies, SEO and development were worthless skills at Page 1 Solutions. My last straw was when upper management decided it would be a good idea to change job positions, titles, and responsibilities without having a conversation with their staff. I personally received a text message from someone that was no longer with the company informing me of the change. There is zero open communication here. Besides zero recognition for hard work, the environment turned into a pot of rumors. If someone heard you say something that appeared to be negative, it would be addressed with upper management and there would be punishment (withholding of raises). There was one particular instance while I was there: a few colleagues "liked" and old co-workers FB post that happened to address an issue with our CEO. The office manager saw that they "liked" it and those people got in trouble. Hearing about instances like this very often made me feel like a child and that it was not okay to have an opinion unless it fell inline with the opinion of the company. I could go on and on with personal experiences. I worked very hard my first year there, very much buying into the nonsense that I could move up there. Upper management will withhold perks if you are not positive enough for them, even if it is not in the best interest of the company. On my team, no one was promoted in the 2 years that I was there. There were caps on salaries for job titles so it was beneficial to them to keep you in a position so they didn't have to pay you more. There was a saying there, "Page 1 pays in pizza and movies". Once talk started going on salaries, they implemented pizza and movie days. The pizza was paid for from the vending machines that employees used. I feel for those still working there. Its a deep hole that is hard to get out of. My advice to anyone there... take the time to really learn what you're doing. And while P1S doesn't set up websites properly and they are bandaided together, know that you are forced to do it incorrectly because "the client is always right" and make sure you learn it the correct way. Keep your work polished and just keep looking. There are a lot of companies that offer every other Friday off and pizza and its just for doing a good job, you won't have to work and additional hour a day to get it!