Vantaggi
Full-time employee for over 2 years. It has your typical tech company perks like free snacks and beer and a casual environment. The new office location at Redwood Shores is also nice. It's fairly fast paced so there is a lot of opportunity to develop your skills and gain experience. However, the real stand-outs were the people. Talented, hardworking, and all around some of the best people I've had the pleasure to work with. Beyond being coworkers, I would consider many of them my friends and family. If you have the opportunity to hire or work with someone who used to be a designer, writer, QC, producer or project manager (basically, anyone from the Content Department) at Guidespark, do not hesitate. You absolutely won't regret it.
Svantaggi
Pay is lower than other tech companies of this size and the hours can get brutal during the busy season. At times, there will be people sleeping in the office overnight due to the amount of work. A lot of contractors are brought on during the busy season as well, but with many being let go before their contracts expired. The product is not as innovative as they want to make it seem, and the quality of work pushed out is embarrassing due to the rushed deadlines and a growth-at-all-costs mentality. Additonally, there is little communication between departments which leads to major issues in projects. Talent and loyalty is not valued, only the amount of money that could be saved if a senior employee was cut. A major lay off today had some of the best employees leave. Managers that were with the company for years (one of first hires!) that helped to build the teams and were instrumental in success had less notice than a temp. And more than just laying people off from their jobs, Guidespark tore apart a family. The emotional trauma is going to haunt the company and the future is not bright.