Pros
- #1 by far is the absolutely outstanding team of people to work with -- I love the emphasis put on hiring people who aren't just smart, but enthusiastic, and above all, *kind*. Pays off an incredible amount, especially in an environment like this one that focuses so much on pair programming.
- I've been learning an incredible amount every day since I started. There's that pairing at work again -- ramping up on projects, languages, frameworks, etc is blazingly fast compared to other places I've worked that don't pair.
- Pretty much every company likes to show off their set of values, but I've never encountered anywhere that *lives* them as much as Connected. It's the polar opposite of that trite corporate BS you usually see.
- The whole management team seriously values each and every one of their employees. That probably sounds trite too, but it's true. Ideas carry just as much weight coming from a senior engineer as from an intern. Senior employees practically bend over backwards to support their team's personal growth/development. I've heard of sales turning down major projects just because the rest of the team wouldn't enjoy working on them. The list just goes on.
- The culture consistently manages to hit that sweet spot between "it's a startup, everything's crazy, whatever we'll just wing it" and "we need to have some solid and proven structure to keep us all performing at our best". It's an insanely hard balance to strike, and I'm honestly floored by how well everyone manages it. Even the more heavily structured parts all feel useful/neccessary - normally you'd expect at least a bit of "awkward red tape", but I haven't really encountered it.
- I thought I'd hate the strict 9-6 work hours (no sleeping in?!), but I've actually grown to love it. I'm no morning person, but being able to work together beside your pair the whole day and then confidently leave work at a predictable hour is huge.
Bottom line: I feel more fulfilled each and every day at Connected than I did on the best days of any other job I've had. I don't imagine leaving here for a long, long time.
Cons
- Most clients are pretty fantastic, but there are still occasionally those unavoidable roadbumps you get with any services company.
- Connected doesn't really compete on compensation -- it's not absurdly low or anything, but if salary is really important to you, you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
(Also, everyone else seems to put "office coffee" here... the new nespresso is great, but am I the only one that likes the old coffee machine too?)
