Great people, but losing culture that made it great
Pros
The hiring process is vigorous, so everyone working here really cares about the work they do, and wants to do a good job. Offices in London, Barcelona, Liverpool & Berlin, opportunity to travel between them. Encouraged to speak at events and get involved with the community. Novoda does a lot of event sponsorship and has founded several meetup groups. Fairly flexible hours, though this seems to vary with the extent in different offices. Would recommend as a place to work as it's a great place to learn, however it does need some work to retain what it was like a couple of years ago.
Cons
Client projects aren't great. Seems more of a priority on signing the project and getting the money rather than it being rewarding or worthwhile for the employees. Recent projects are high stress and a lot of pressure from the client side. The main employee benefit of conferences being paid for (up to an individual budget), feels like it is being eroded. Introduction of guilds who have to approve spending is unfair to anyone less confident to speak up about why it is worth going. Unclear on what the extent of this is. Management structure feels too flat. Fine when a smaller company but as we've grown it feels too limited. Would be great to have more chance to feed back up the tree, as otherwise, it feels like there will never be change. Could be better at remote work support. Some great initiatives to help, like daily whole company standups, but very little assistance for full remote workers. Feel like we could improve hiring and morale if this was more flexible. Also lots of pressure and lack of clarity to be at a client's office, which makes the office feel detached and also erodes the culture.
