Pros
- Interesting and varied work! Plenty of room to get involved with areas of projects that are of particular interest, regardless of how much experience you have with them previously. Managers ask about your learning goals and are serious about ensuring you have chance to reach them - Great support and training for new starters. My new starter training was a while ago now but I found the materials were very well-made and the process of moving onto real projects not as scary as I thought it would be - People on the development side of things write *really* nice, well-structured and readable code and give good advice - great to learn from as a more junior developer. Management and people on different business support teams are also super competent and make your non-development life simple - People take proper breaks and go home on time, and actively encourage you to do so too - Haven't yet come across a single person who's been even slightly unpleasant to work with, and there's always someone around to lend a hand if you need one. Even people who don't know each other particularly well often go out of their way to help each other out - Nice size for a company in my personal view - big enough to be stable and have good established processes, but small enough to be at least vaguely acquainted with most people who work here - Frequent social events, large and small, with lots of different activities on offer (some remote, some in-person) - Long-standing connections with local charities and schools, meaning plenty of good volunteering opportunities available if you're interested, backed up by an optional paid holiday allowance for volunteering (beyond normal holiday allowance) - Lots of other great benefits. Long-term health insurance was of particular value to me after a nasty run-in with covid and ensuing complications. The HR team dealt with things in a very professional and caring way, going above and beyond what was outlined in the (already generous) policy, for which I'll always be grateful
Cons
- It's easy to feel a little insecure occasionally when pretty much everyone at the company is extremely clever and good at their job. (Turns out a lot of them have experienced imposter syndrome too though, and they're great at supporting you in your role and helping you build your confidence) - Higher salaries perhaps available at some big tech companies and in tech departments of companies in the financial sector. (Haven't investigated this firsthand, since salary is plenty generous enough in my view and Softwire is a good fit for my priorities more generally)