Pros
I've been at Chelsea Apps Factory a long time. I've seen a lot of people come and go. Chelsea Apps Factory has some of the smartest and talented people I know in one place. The talent is young, eager and the place almost resembles a mini Google. They have a meditation hour, there's nintendo to play, free breakfast and a good culture which does not pressurise you. Chelsea Apps Factory will give you an opportunity if you are young and ambitious. Even if you are not a direct fit into the organisation, you will still perhaps be given an opportunity to thrive. Everyone from below management level are great people who you will genuinely have an amazing time working with.
Cons
1) Management are clueless. The management at Chelsea Apps Factory do NOT come form the digital or technology world. The ex-CEO was from a Newspaper company, and the management are all people he knows from his network who do not have any experience of digital technology. Their management style is often corporate and completely outdated/out of touch from the tech-startup culture you need. The new CEO is not much of a leader, he ran a small subsidiary at Chelsea Apps Factory and was then promoted to CEO level. He's gone back on quite a lot of what he promised when he first started, and people are not sure about the direction he is taking the company in. He fails to inspire the talent, and is not has proven on many occasions he is not concerned with the talent, he is all about numbers and it's pretty evident the staff to him are simply resources not talent which will need to be nurtured. 2) Clear divide in the company. In Chelsea Apps Factory you can draw a line straight through the middle. One one side there is amazing young talent, full of potential and if Chelsea Apps Factory did one thing right its hire the right "young" talent. On the other side you have corporate and very poor managers who have no training on management techniques, are extremely corporate and frankly push unrealistic expectations onto their employees. 3) You are bossed around by stuck up/arrogant sales people. It's a very clear, known fact that the Sales people at Chelsea Apps Factory are some of the most hated people in the company. They are extremely stuck up, rude, arrogant, patronising and demanding sales people you will ever come across. They will throw you to external clients, expect you to work dog hours, without any support. They will utilise to over 100% where they can. They do not care about how much work you have on, they will demand you get things done for them. They fail to provide clear instructions, and when you speak to them they will talk down on you. The main problem with Chelsea Apps Factory is that company brown noses it's clients. So Sales people will promise the world to them, and will often force you onto projects where they set unrealistic expectations for the client. The goal for Chelsea Apps Factory is to extract money where they can and thus ensure someone is always being billed. 4) Absolutely NO career trajectory. Frankly, the company is too small for any career progression. In saying this, they split the progression model as though it's a corporate model. i.e. They will split you into "junior" and "senior"- however you will do the EXACT same work as someone way more senior then you, you just wont get paid anywhere near their level. Their salaries do not make sense. Their teams are extremely small often 3-4 in a team, in that team you will generally have 2 juniors, one senior and one head. However 9 times out of 10 all of you are doing the same tasks, however just have a huge differentiation in the salary grades which doesnt make sense. 5) Extremely poor salaries If you want a good salary. Forget it. Honestly - the Management are WAY overpaid, and the Juniors are extremely underpaid. It's a real world reflection of society. If you do not demand your salary when you first enter you will NOT get a higher salary at Chelsea Apps Factory when you are there even at review/promotion stage, the salary will only increase by a couple of grand at max. It's very clear the management are extremely over paid and the junior members of staff often resent the management for this, this again contributes to the clear divide between the mangement and the resources. People do not feel fairly paid, and people have quit Chelsea Apps Factory to leave and often get paid £10-20,000 pounds more because that's their market rate. If you do not ask for a rise, you will NOT get one, and even when you do - it may be a very little raise. 6) Be prepared to do tasks which do not lie within your remit. Again - the Sales people will utilise resources like robots until the last second you can work. In doing so, it doesn't matter who you are you will be expected to put together presentations, and various things for clients - because the world revolves around clients at Chelsea apps Factory not the people. In doing so, they've lost touch of whats important. Overall - since June 2015 Chelsea Apps Factory has lost half of its work force to people who are willing to pay fair compensation, and who can offer a good career trajectory as well as training to develop peoples careers. Let me emphasis - they lost HALF their workforce. The new CEO deems that as being "normal" because "people move on" without realising that people do not move on, unless its the LAST resort they feel they have to take when the company fails to do anything to understand their situation. The new CEO is not received well - and clearly is out of touch with the employees of Chelsea apps Factory
