Pros
Cashstar employees get to work in a spacious, modern environment in a phenomenal location with lots of natural light and great views alongside some of the best people you're likely to meet. It's the kind of work experience that will inform your perspective and decision making for years to come. The management team has worked very hard to make sure that people have what they need to be at their best. The office is full and active without being cramped, loud or distracting. You have freedom to work the way you need to work to get things done, with a dedicated desk, standing workspaces, several nooks, conference rooms and working from home as options. All of these choices let you adapt to the nature of the work at hand to do what makes sense to you. When it's break time, there's a fully stocked kitchen staffed by a wonderful lady who is very friendly, a game room and, of course, you're right in the Old Port, so you can always take a nice scenic walk, run, bike ride, etc. The Engineering and Solution Delivery team is made up of some truly great people with a variety of skills and talents. The leadership team does a great job of allowing you to put the pedal as far to the floor as you can handle and of letting people play to their strengths and explore different roles while still getting the job done. If you see a way that you can add value to the organization or have a positive impact on your coworkers' lives, Cashstar will generally step back and let you do your thing. The leadership is very patient and will let you learn, adapt and figure out where you'd like to be and what you can offer as time goes on. It's really difficult to call out specific teams here because every single one is just killing it! Devops? Rock solid. Data? Amazing skills. Security? Absolutely crushing it. Frontend, backend, TAMs, PMs, managers - everybody in the organization is there to kick butt and take names, period. It's actually pretty awesome to be a part of a team that is so committed. If you take a minute to look around, everywhere you look, you'll see people who are just really into what they're doing and that's amazing. Cashstar is also very diverse and culturally sensitive. They do things like parties and so on but are not going to force you to do anything that might freak you out. If you're an introvert, they'll generally respect that. People here have all kinds of talents outside of work and love to share - everything from sailing to brewing beer to karate! You name it, someone here probably does it and would love to chat. We have a great culture of knowledge sharing and you won't have any choice but to get better at what you do. You'll get your learn on via Lunch 'n' Learns, PRs, our shared ebook library, conferences, Meetups (a couple of which Cashstar sponsors) and, if you're observant, your coworkers. If you're stumped, just ask - someone will always jump up and help you out. What little ego and occasional elitism that does manifest itself is quickly shut down and balanced out by a culture of meritocracy and mutual respect. The business is obviously working! Not sure what more I can say there - some might say it's inherently not really a very innovative product but there is a strong demand for it among retailers and for consumers, we are really adding value to people's lives through our service. Our sales, marketing and client success teams are all every bit as awesome as Engineering/SD. The CEO, Ben Kaplan, does a great job of communicating our business objectives and the progress we make and setbacks we have on the way toward meeting those objectives. When we do experience setbacks, which is infrequent, our management team and board are able to figure it out and keep our momentum as well as learn whatever lesson there is to be learned and apply it to what we're doing right away. Cashstar is, in that way, agile to the core. Compensation and benefits are right where they should be for this area and industry and there is always opportunity for people to advance in the direction they want to advance in over time. What you choose to do and how well you do it play an important role in this, as does how well you do the things you don't especially care for! Leadership is very open to feedback. I have seen most of my ideas or callouts get implemented and addressed over the past two years, which is another great thing about working at Cashstar. Cashstar is very Choose Your Own Adventure - a lot is just up to you!
Cons
#1 - Work load: Being an agile shop in a fast-moving market in a fast-moving industry, we do move fast, the work is hard and sometimes intense, and a lot is expected of you. Because of Cashstar's culture of "if you can do stuff, then do it", you might find your work/life balance get, well, out of balance as you accrue roles and responsibilities. It's really your responsibility to define where that line is, recharge when you need to and communicate with your team and manager on how you're doing and what you need to get things done. Everyone doesn't produce at the same level at Cashstar - some people like to push themselves harder than others and that's okay. But you might find yourself getting frustrated sometimes about others' lack of hustle. Just run your own race and you'll be fine. The team as a whole, though, has plenty of hustle and hopefully, you do too! #2 - Direction: There are a lot of "corporate" types in the management team but a lot of "startup" types on the ground, so you can receive some mixed signals sometimes. This usually manifests as confusion around whether you should be receiving more direction or just running around doing stuff or as frustration around dated ideas related to product direction or rocky execution. My advice on the former is to be self-directed, learn our process for getting things done, and ask someone you trust if you have any questions. For the latter, make your case - along with a proposed solution! - and then let it go, focusing on what you can do to execute well. Neither of these should be earth-shattering - they're the same things you would do anywhere else! #3 - Initial Intimidation/Culture Shock: Our onboarding process has gotten much better than some of the earlier reviews might suggest. However, Cashstar is not for you if you like to have your hand held! Collaboration is good and healthy but doing your job for you is neither - not for the team and especially not for you. If you're used to teaching yourself complex things without anyone to walk you through it, you will have a distinct advantage and if not, you will be supported by your team to an appropriate degree until you feel ready to rock. Our pace might make you feel like you should be "ready" way before you really should - put your pride on the shelf and give yourself at least a year before you start expecting all sorts of things from yourself! #4 - Operations Support - The biggest con I can think of is that we work insanely hard - in my opinion, harder than we really should be - on our platform operations. If I had one problem that I could wave a magic wand and solve, that would be it. As an engineer, you will also work really hard on this, especially during our peak season. It's just something all of us must participate in and it gets pretty rough, although it has gotten much, much better over the past couple of years.