Vantaggi
* First of all Xored took my job application seriously and responded immediately. Even though I was Polish and Novosibirsk was located 6 time zones away from my hometown. After a video chat they gave me a typical homework and invited me to their HQ in central Asia for the on-site interview. Now I can fully confirm those guys are indeed very responsive and ready to do an international business.
* Both Novosibirsk offices were located in a very pleasant places. The Akademgorodok office was situated in the calm, green area, close to the taiga forests and the so-called Ob Sea. The other office was arranged in the high-rise in the city center and had a wonderful view on the Novosibirsk and the Ob river.
* There was a rather flat-hierarchy in the company
* There were a good programmers on board, some of them were even pretty exceptional.
* They did a lot of open-source projects (you can find them on github)
* There was a lot of eclipse development going on there
* It was possible to work from home on demand
* The company was mostly running on macs
* The non-programming xored employers were always ready to help - I basically mean the girls from our HR/office management - Irina and Masha - and our admin Andrey. The girls helped me a lot especially with the bureaucratic paperworks like obtaining the Russian visa
Svantaggi
Akadem office might have been somewhat cosier