Pros
This is going to be a long one... Senior Management & Organisation - The current group of directors and senior managers are some of the most approachable and considerate people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Leading up to the first lockdown, the company was quick to implement WFH arrangements, and made it clear from the beginning that those with outside responsibilities (particularly in relation to children and/or other dependents) could work the necessary flexible hours required in order to balance the home and working schedule. Additional equipment and support was provided swiftly and without hesitation; I honestly cannot think of how things could've gone any better, considering the circumstances, and serious credit needs to go to the company for this. Besides COVID, the management team are consistently making efforts to improve the development cycle and take on board any feedback/advice from the teams to find ways of increasing both productivity and the customer experience. All staff members are encouraged to speak up and let themselves be heard, and at no point have I felt as if I'm being spoken down to. As the company expands, it will be interesting to see if this direct feedback loop can be sustained; based on what I've seen so far, I'm confident that it will. In short, it's evident they have their staff member's best interests at heart, and of course the customer base. Long may it continue. Culture & Working Environment - There's an incredible group of developers here at PebblePad, and I'm continually amazed at the level of expertise and knowledge some of these people have and are willing to share. As an entry level developer, I could not have asked for a better working environment in which to begin my career. It can be slightly overwhelming at times trying to take it all on-board, but I've been encouraged from day 1 to get stuck in and, if necessary, fail fast in order to improve my skills. Friday Tech-Times are a weekly afternoon event in which developers (and anyone else who's interested) get together to ask techy-related questions and present anything we think is interesting. It's an open forum, in which members at the apprentice level all the way up to platform level have an opportunity to share ideas and receive direct feedback from their team mates. It's certainly the highlight of the week. Finally, the tech stack is continually reviewed and modernised where possible, and we've recently begun the transition of moving from AngularJs to React. It's a challenging and worthy endeavour, and will no doubt keep us busy for the immediate future! Career Benefits & Pay - It's been mentioned that the salary doesn't quite compare to the industry average, and there are certainly elements of truth to this. However, in contrast to what has been suggested in other reviews, I personally have received a pay rise recently; all I had to do was ask! I approached my line manager, explained why I believed the salary increase was justified, the message was passed up the chain, and the salary increase was approved, simple. This harkens to an earlier point about the approachability of the senior management and their willingness to listen to employees. As a final note on the salary, I have no doubt that as revenue increases and the customer base is widened (as it's currently doing so) then this will be reflected in the salaries, so in my personal opinion, salary is a non-issue. But of course, there's more to a job than just its salary. In addition to a personal development budget, PebblePad employees also have access to a SimplyHealth account provided and funded by the company, and a flexible and generous pension scheme to boot. Outside of this, the company has also agreed to provide funding towards my part-time degree, which I'm eternally grateful for. The latter point is probably the starkest example of the company's enthusiasm and long-term view they take in relation to the improvement and ROI of their employees. There's bound to be some additional benefits in the employee package which I've forgotten to mention, but even if not, the items mentioned above would be more than enough in my opinion!
Cons
Quite honestly? None. Any cons I can think of are more due to the profession as opposed to the company itself (e.g. no one likes deadlines :P)
