Vantaggi
Rapid growth means lots of interesting work. If you are on the Engineering and Architecture side of the house, this is a huge win. Lots of ability to introduce new technology to solve scale problems, as well as opportunity to "patch up" the technical debt. If you are in the sales world, the pipeline just seems to be wide open and continues to provide lots of revenue opportunities. If you get in with the right group of folks, you'll find yourself besides those that think on a scale of the bigger companies that do cloud. They are only interested in next-generation technologies that will solve big problems as well as bolster the environment to the next level. If you are a self starter, and can power through the politics, you can find yourself in a position to help contribute significant change that can help drive and shape the business. But that's IF you can power through the politics. Unlimited PTO is good, as you never have to worry about taking 2 weeks off a few times a year.
Svantaggi
This company would love for you to think they are a fun, easy going start-up, that values their employees and takes care of them for their heroic acts. The reality is, this company is far from laid back, and are so fundamentally broken at their core, they often times burn their employees out because of the lack of structure and willingness to intercede to ensure they take care of their employees. The company will ask and ask and ask, and it's always under the pretense that "The customer wants it". Need something escalated? No problem, merely drop the 4 magic words: "The customer wants it". It's great to be maniacal about customer service, but it's a recipe for disaster when you have no standards, and you are an IaaS servicing Fortune 100/500 companies. This company is sales driven, 110%. While that's usually not a problem, the problem here is sales has ZERO filter, and has NO accountability to the engineering and architecture teams that have to Architect, Design, Deploy, and operate all the environments. This applies to software engineering, network engineering, systems engineering, and anyone else in the deployment chain. Unfortunately, this org is loaded with a mix individuals with traditional Enterprise IT Mindsets. And while this is not always a bad thing, the types referenced here, are those that resist change regardless of merit, or make up reasons why NOT to even look at a solution to a problem that isn't based on anything other than the individuals "opinion". The second that change is introduced, many of these folks become combative, and have NO issues going behind everyones back to upper management to squash the initiative. This is not an isolated incident. This is a normal day to day happening across every component of the org. I've heard complaints from all forms of engineering, architecture, and operations even. This is absolutely due to the lack of engagement in middle management, and the fact that the Executives will quite literally, step in and make command decisions on behalf of Engineers and Architects without first hearing both sides. Operations is, to say the least, one of the biggest pain points of Virtustream. Unfortunately, the leadership at present seems to be way in over their heads, and is often more interested in the politics in their roles, than wrapping their arms around the massive technical debt the company has incurred over the last 5 years, and fixing it for good. Much of the management come from traditional Enterprise IT backgrounds, haven't worked at the scale Virtustream operates at, and certainly have not faced the problems a company of this size is facing. Thus, they don't know how to approach the problems they face with anything other than the old school Enterprise IT mindsets that got the business into the position they are presently in.. When you combine that with the individuals that fight change tooth and nail, you find yourself in a loop fighting the same battles, every day, with the same people. Work and life balance is perhaps one of the worst I've seen in over 24 years as a professional. The company will take, and take, and take. If you answer your phone, or respond to email, they will not hesitate to ask you to abandon your families, or work weekends, and it's always under the guise of "For the customer" and a manufactured deadline so that a PM can check off a box. This would be just fine, if there were recognition that this was happening, and they in some way compensated those that go the extra mile on a regular basis. Instead, I've watched 8 people quit the company in the last 20 days from each of the branches of the technical side of the house. Again, not an isolated incident.