Vantaggi
-All of the people there were SO kind. I didn’t meet one bad egg. -The company seems to care a great deal about their mission, and therefore, the people carrying that mission out in their name. -The job came with great benefits: good insurances, some nice employee programs, merch, competitive pay, beautiful facilities, quality work property to use (MacBook and all the accessories you’d want, nice desk area, good software programs to use, many resources to borrow/use), etc. I know there’s more, but I’m forgetting them now. -I truly enjoyed my work. It was all the things I was looking for and more. It was a heavy workload, but I liked pretty much all of it. -My boss, who had had my job before me, cared enough to work with me a lot in the beginning to help me, as it was my first full-time job and didn’t know all of the specifics. She even more or less taught me a good bit of front-end coding. -The team environment was great. I really loved my coworkers and getting to know them. The work itself wasn't highly collaborative (though peer reviewing was big), but there was a lot of camaraderie and personal growth time that happened together during the workweek. -Having Christ at the center of everything made every bit of this job more meaningful and enjoyable.
Svantaggi
-Content creation was limited to topics that the board of directors deemed appropriate for the brand. -Much was expected of you once past the initial learning period. (It’s a small albeit international ministry, so you wear many hats.) -Though the team-building/personal-growth meetings were wonderful and meaningful, it made more work for you in a way. They wanted you to work on your craft outside of work which is awesome and made you be creative and read, but it also MADE you do those things. They also often took up time when I probably needed to be working because I’m not a naturally fast worker and have ADHD so interruptions for frequent meetings aren’t the best for me. -It’s understandable for “optics” and their ideal work-life balance, but working outside of 9-5 hours was highly frowned upon (even if you needed to complete high volumes of work). They could see this from your status on the online group communications features. -Though we’re all human, it was disappointing to see some gossiping and a little cliquishness amongst coworkers and some seemingly unnecessary secrecy/distance from leadership. -This is specifically Dr. Stanley’s ministry, but it was still a little off-putting that the focus was as much on him and his content/image as on Christ and caring for people who need it. -When I was let go, I had been really struggling with my mental and physical health and didn’t quite know how to approach that with my boss. I told her some of it, and she was very kind and sort of helpful, but I was afraid if I revealed the extent to which I was struggling, there might be negative repercussions. (I don’t know if that would’ve been the case.) It of course backfired though when I downplayed my struggle because of this. Ultimately, falling severely behind in work and being late often due to this is why I was let go. It came without clear warning (or at least not clear to me at the time) or a chance to really explain myself, and that was very difficult for me because I really loved what I did and where I was. I understand it better now, but I had even moved states to be there, so it was very disappointing and felt a bit like the rug had been yanked. Being my first job, I missed mild cues in hindsight that I should have taken as warnings, but I wish I had been given a second chance.