Pros
This is a golden unicorn in the staffing/recruiting industry in terms of its work culture. When I first arrived, more than one employee told me I’d never find another staffing company quite like this.
Compugain celebrates autonomy and open-door transparency from leadership. It’s perfect for the go-getter that can self-manage. Work hour flexibility is unparalleled. Whereas with most other recruiting companies, you are in hot water for scurrying in 5 minutes past 7:30 and no one is expected to leave before 6 or 7pm, Compugain management doesn’t care when you work and where you work as long as you produce. I can waltz in at 8am or 2 pm, or work from home as needed. I've marched into my boss's office and announced to him I'm going to hoof it over to a neighboring bar to see if a buzz will get my head back in the game. I've gotten fist pumps from 2/3 of my bosses/cronies for various whatever's-- including declarations of leaving early. Especially lately, I've completely dropped off on calls some days and, then, gone in Ronin Warrior style, other days. My company respects this. It's great never to have a panic attack at the thought of being fired for oversleeping, to have the opportunity to take total ownership of my own time and powers of prioritization.
Many recruiting companies are hyper KPI-driven and subsequent gristmill workplaces. Data is important but everything becomes about data—for example, monitoring the # of calls you make daily, etc. With Compugain, metrics are important but more from a holistic, goal-driven standpoint.
Management is comprised of supportive and kind people at heart from my direct boss to the founder of the company. Complete open door policy: you feel like you are talking to and working with family. One day, I'm showing my CFO how to navigate Twitter and hashtags; another, I'm rehashing weekend shenanigans to a boss as his eyes light up in vicarious pleasure; another, asking SVP to help me dissect a client requirement. These are people to whom I can go to and openly say "I need help" or "I am feeling overwhelmed." Or who can just plain forgive me for smashing my land line phone more than once through a wall, singing daily expletives, and just being plain human in the way I am.
These are people, who as my direct boss recently emphasized, are more a family than they are a corporation. So, a personal struggle that spills into the professional, a burn out, doesn't become a detracting point in the professional scheme of one's records. I can go to them and tell them "I no longer love what I do" and they will tell me things such as the following:
"Let your mind get bored today. Science has proven that a human works out most of their issue strategy while in boredom mode. When you’re active, you don’t let your mind untwist the issues. Get bored today.
Being honest is always the best way with me. I’m a much more effective sounding board when the facts are discussed. Part of my job since I took on leadership roles has always been to help. Whether helping means creating ways for people to make money or giving advice on career decisions it’s about helping."
They try to support me in meeting my core needs. They let me be myself. They also had plans for me to grow from day 1. They never wanted me to grow stagnant so they proactively would prod me to discuss a professional dev plan with them.
Compugain, more than a work place, is a second home, a playground for recreating myself daily.
I don’t think I’ll ever find a corporate workplace with as outstanding a work culture.
Cons
Sporadic org-chart ambiguity. No 401k match.
