Pros
Working with interesting book manuscripts and many really interesting people; e-books industry is very underdeveloped relative to available technology and this company has made itself an expert in that niche, with some great core ideas.
Cons
Lots of micromanagement. Logging every type of task, down to the minute, in the central system took up far more (non-billable) time than it was worth, but president wanted to be able to track everyones moves for profitability, even if it wasn't a tightly run ship at the end of the day. Staff is egregiously underpaid, especially considering how highly educated they have to be to qualify; those who stick around seem miserable and resigned to their fate of never being adequately compensated. The low morale is palpable. The office is very bare-bones--you could call it sterile but it was also kind of falling apart--and the arrangement of space felt alienating. Meanwhile the president maintained a luxurious lifestyle of sailboats and fancy homes and jet-setting, which was highly visible in the office. Boys-club/fratty male culture in the technical division of the staff. Position was offered with the pitch that advancement and pay increase would come quickly if you worked hard--turned out there was actually a set timeline for this and it involved a non-guaranteed, modest pay increase after 18 months at the earliest.
