Vantaggi
I think the best reason I've enjoyed working here so far is the community and culture that Neighbor has. I enjoy coming to work everyday as I look forward to working with everyone across the engineering organization, and the company as a whole. Everyone is friendly and thinking of how we can help each other help the company succeed. There is a persistent culture of learning and technical excellence, even as the engineering teams are working to define company standards and approaches. Compared to my last position, the work-life balance has also been great. There is definitely a focus on getting things done versus simply maintaining a presence at a desk. The team leads have been very accommodating when life issues arise and have been as flexible as I could hope for. I've also really enjoyed the autonomy and the trust the company places in engineers. We identify needs and work with stakeholders ourselves, then work with the other engineers to design, implement, and deploy solutions that go on to have an immediate impact. That trust extends all the way from the leadership team as well. I was initially a bit hesitant about none of the founders being part of the engineering organization, but they have shown a great understanding of engineering processes and allowing the engineering org to do our thing. Finally, there is simply the growth potential here in terms of personal/career growth and equity. For the former, as soon as you've started, you're sitting down with the team to understand the existing systems, the problems being faced, and identifying ways to solve them in this context while ramping up. There's work to be done in every facet, so you can work in whichever way you feel will have the greatest impact on helping the customer. As for the latter, come in for an interview and Joseph will talk about the size of the market we're addressing, the fundamental ways we can help our customers, and show you how we're already giving people an experience to rave about. And we're just beginning. I think the executive team has the challenge before them of maintaining this culture as the company continues to scale, but they seem to have a great foundation to start from.
Svantaggi
The easiest thing to point out is probably the benefits and maybe compensation. Simply put, you could probably maximize your short-term total earnings in terms of monetary compensation and benefits at a more established company, especially a FAANG or other large, name-brand tech company. The leadership is aware of that, and one day they want to be in a place to do so, but the reality is that the company is still a startup that's scaling, and will have to come with time and success. This is more than an empty promise, they have increased PTO from 15 to 20 days this year for example. This is simply a trade-off you'd have to weigh against the growth potential. That said, in the context of a startup, I think the benefits are fairly good. It's been a nice sweet spot of catching a rising company in growth mode while also not having to resort to going without insurance or eating ramen as you work in a garage somewhere. As a startup company, things that have already been put in place in other, more mature companies are still being worked on. People here work in many roles and do many things as we're all working together to make things work. As a result, your day to day will be less structured and organized than it might be in a similar role at a more mature company. The engineering org is also younger and not as diverse as I'd hope to see. This is something that Neighbor is trying to fix with new hires that have more experience. Lastly, Neighbor has made a bet on largely being an in-person company. We do have Monday as a designated work-at-home day (if you wish, about 10-20% of the company is still in the office), and most meetings accommodate remote attendance. But the expectation is that the company will largely be on-site and in-person, as conditions permit. If being 100% remote is something important in your next position, then this may not be the right place for your next career move.