Equal Experts Reviews

Pros

Good salary, benefits and you’re treated like a human not a number

Cons

Mainly uses contractors so progression can be difficult and uses 2 year contracts for employees.

Pros

Meaningful work, highly skilled colleagues, happy to share knowledge and coach less experienced team members. Open, humble

Cons

Growing pains as we try to maintain culture and flat structure in a bigger org

Pros

- Very varied projects - Work with some of the best and most experienced people in the industry - A lot of support from the Equal Experts network - Not afraid of 'costs' e.g. if you want to book a conference - book the conference - no need to go through months of applications. - Creates a strong learning environment - Good benefits package - Very transparent company leadership

Cons

- The career ladder as an employee can seem quite poor compared to traditional companies as there's no growth in titles - it may take some people a while to get used to the growth being via experience, skills, responsibilities and money rather than title - this is both a pro and a con though. - Salary reviews aren't a discussion they're a letter left in the HR tool - this doesn't feel like a good process and leaves some people feeling un-appreciated especially if the review doesn't have an increase.

Pros

Work alongside technically brilliant people who are aligned but a common set of professional values. An open and fluid structure so that people can self organise in a way that best suits clients.

Cons

The open structure can sometimes lead to a chaotic project. This often depends on the culture of the client. That said, Equal Experts is often quick to recognise this and withdrawing from engagements that aren't working out.

Pros

Experts at modern software engineering practices Great people They treat you like grown-ups

Cons

Lack of career management might be a con for some people

Pros

I thought it would be a bit cheeky of me to post a review of the company I founded - but then why not give my POV? We are at the same time a software consultancy and a global network that includes both permanent employees and long term associates (contractors). I designed the Equal Experts network so it is the place to be for all the senior practitioners with often well over 10 years of experience in technology - that want to remain hands-on and make things with clients that need their expertise the most, in a climate of mutual trust. One of the main reason to join is because you want to learn from so many other very experienced people such as yourself that surround you, both in the overall network and your own team. Then I think it's the culture. People point out how the organisation trusts people at scale, from the get-go. They also enjoy the autonomy to resolve a problem without being restricted to a particular way of 'thinking' or 'doing'. Everyone is expected to be a "grown-up" that picks up the trash from the floor. It's not that simple every day :). The company relies on everyone's intrinsic motivation and self-discipline to function. For instance, there is no annual performance review for employees. We keep the hierarchy to an absolute minimum. And any employee can make many decisions without following a traditional approval process - as long as they use our "Advice Process".

Cons

There are a number of drawbacks to the model we have: * for employees, the career opportunities are more limited than in more traditional places with a structured career ladder. * there is less structured support and guidance than in other places - you need to be comfortable networking and asking for things. * being surrounded by very sharp and experienced people means everyone can suffer of the "impostor syndrome" once in a while (I know I do!) * engagements can be challenging (and frustrating) - we usually end up solving the more "tricky" problems for our clients and we often need to influence people and improve their ways of working to succeed. Also there is no denying that we are a constant work in progress, for instance: * we do not collaborate across accounts and offices as much as we would like - * our gender diversity is below industry average - we do have many middle aged male contractors given our model. One thing we started focussing on globally is to improve the psychological safety of all our delivery teams so everyone feels included and safe to contribute and challenge.