The place to go if you want to fully experience the workings of a China man company.
Pros
I would not want to mention any, but there are some small perks -Working hours are decent probably because there's not much work to do. But when you are assigned to a project, you are expected to put in the hours to get the work done and that would mean almost 24-7 just because someone is doing it as well. -Mid-level managers are friendly and not slave drivers. They understand work-life balance and gives sufficient autonomy in managing your own time. However, there is still the connotation of having to OT is to show that you are "hard-working" and that forms part of your performance criteria (although not spoken out loud). -Colleagues are friendly and understanding. You can share with them your frustrations because they share the same complaints. -Pay package is considered all right if you are just starting out and this is your first job. Don't expect consistent increments or market-rate bonuses. Also because they don't value their people (unless you're a favourite or cut from the same cloth as the favourites) and considers everyone expendable.
Cons
-Being in a "start-up" you get to experience what it is like building a company from the ground up. They would scrimp on expenses like building a professional website and turn to their employees for their outside-of-work experience to do such tasks. When cited as a contribution to the company during performance review, it is seen as "part of the start-up experience" and something the company provided the opportunity for and not an actual contribution. -Personal growth is always mentioned and encouraged by the management. But there is no explicit enablement of such learning. They talk about sending people for courses and paying for certifications, that rarely happens. -They brand themselves as a start-up but the only thing "start-up" about the company is a hot-desking concept and giving you the opportunity to do extra things for the company on top of your BAUs. -For a tech company, the "technology" used for projects are pretty stone age. There is no automation (where automation can be done, suggest it and you are expected to build it and not be credited) and much of the work is done manually with Excel or Word. Expect to do ripple changes in several documents when there is a minor change from the client of management. -Turnover rate is extremely high, you hear of people leaving the company every month, but at the same time, the management is talking about expanding headcount by 3 times the current size. -Management talks a lot about exciting future plans but you never see these plans play out in reality. They do a good job at creating excitement by announcing new pipelines but discussions often take up to 6 months and by then it is forgotten and swept under the rug. -Joining this company as a non-technical person and hoping to learn technical skills is putting a nail in the coffin of your career. Do not join this company as a non-technical person and hope to learn on the job. The majority of the work is technical pieces and they will be given to people who have that knowledge. You will, however, hone your listening and scribing skills in 4 hour-long meetings that never concludes. -There is only one partner and multiple on-going projects. Thus, there's only one who reviews and gives the stamp of approval for all kinds of work that goes out to clients. It's also the same person that is managing several projects at the same time. So expect to be having meetings at 6 pm or 7 pm in the evening or even on the weekends. You should give up your plans because that person also gave them up. -Autonomy in the company is probably only given for you to pick where and what to eat for lunch. Expect to be micro-managed to the bone. Even though "autonomy" is given, it will be quickly taken away as it's not up to standard. -The benefits are abysmal compared to other tech companies, forget about fancy pantries or flexible leave schemes.
