Pros
* The developers are friendly, polite about each other’s work and respectful day-to-day. I was impressed by the total lack of entitled and aggressive individuals on the development team. Developers were helpful and worked hard. I liked most of the people. * Clean codebase. There’s not a big breadth of technologies, but the developers have in-depth knowledge about the technologies that are used. * Modern development tools. On the technical side, it’s almost frictionless getting started on projects, and you can do something productive from your first day. The developers have had some very intelligent and discerning leadership (though I’m not sure if any of these leaders are still empowered). * Slick presentation. Both in terms of perks for employees and marketing materials, there is some vision on the marketing and visual side. Classy website stays up to date with trends. * Straightforward technical work (some may consider this a con). Not too intellectually taxing; quite relaxing to do because you seldom get blocked. * Difficult organisational politics (some may consider this a con). It’s an interesting company to study if you like to learn about that sort of thing. I learned a lot in my time here, and made some new friends. * Very nice to new employees for the first couple of months. Some other people are also treated well for longer, so not everyone is lying when they say the company has been good to them. If you have friends in the CEO’s favoured crowd, it seems like you will be treated well. * Treat favoured interview candidates very well, eg: meals with senior figures in the organisation, friendly interviews. * Nice material perks. Usual startup things like ping pong table, breakfast in the Montreal office, games room. * Pay market rate * Some sponsored activities * Consume popular software, so it’s easy to look up how to do a lot of things.
Cons
Before I started I read the negative reviews here and wondered if they were outdated-- nope, they still apply. :( After a pleasant interview process and very friendly beginning, I felt like management suddenly started finding flaws in everything I did and treating me differently to the rest of my team. My other colleagues seemed fine with me, invited me to hang out socially and approved of my technical work, so it seemed like it wasn't down to my skills or personality. There was a weird disconnect between how I felt I was treated by management and the work I was doing; it felt a bit like I’d angered someone above me, but I couldn’t think of anything I’d done to prompt it. So, I guessed there were probably politics way over my head, and I wondered if my record was being used to create a negative story about someone higher up in the organisation or something like that. Though I might be mistaken in assuming there was any sort of logic. Before I started, they acknowledged the glassdoor reviews and said they were changing the culture for the better. This didn't match my experience; I wondered if maybe the CEO changed his mind shortly after I started and wanted to run the company more like a callcenter again, and as I’d partly been brought in to help shift the culture away from that, I needed to go. Whatever the explanation, I was very straightforward during the hiring process, but it looked like they wanted something else once I started, so I have no idea why they hired me. I’d’ve appreciated more honesty; they wasted everyone’s time and I felt like I experienced a lot of needless bullying and mindgames. Also this was a miserable experience even *with* that awareness; it would have totally destroyed my self esteem if I hadn’t worked at other, better organisations in the past and been able to see just how broken things were here. I’ve never needed to write a glassdoor review before. Luckily there are lots of better companies out there. Even on the best days, there was something missing here, and it never felt better than 'okayish'-- and even that didn't last long! Very weird experience. I hope nobody else suffers it, though glassdoor indicates it has been a pattern for years, so unfortunately I think it's likely. Be warned! EDIT: A couple of extra things I forgot to note-- I thought they had a very weird attitude; I felt pressured to buy into a narrative where the CEO's gut feelings about people revealed their worth. 'Only he could see their true potential (or if they are worthless); he knows who works hard just through his feelings' kind of thing. I found it very, *very* weird and cultlike. I also got the impression they would try to discredit people who had a better frame of reference in a pretty insidious way-- I felt like they acted disproportionately negatively to give others the impression the person had deserved it, and to imply negative things about their character. I wondered if this was deflection; I had a helpful and hardworking colleague and I felt like their character, competence and work ethic were attacked constantly and dishonestly. I cannot think of any good motive for doing that in a functional workplace (the recourse to criticizing character is interesting in itself; a cynic might wonder if provability plays a part). And as others have noted, the positive reviews on glassdoor are very suspicious. Personally I found myself working far longer than my contracted hours and crying every day, so 'only some people are treated well' is the most generous interpretation I can give them.
