Pros
- Rank and file team members are helpful and very fun to work with - Game room with pool table and ping pong, a Wii-U gaming area, and a candy room. - You will get a large variety of experience. Especially in the Professional Services team. You will learn how to tell the difference between a poorly scoped project (most of them) and a well scoped project (the few and far between). You will learn Server Administration, SQL Server Administration, database scripting (T-SQL), payroll systems and procedures (the majority of customers are AP and AR). You will also learn HR processes, Javascript, and workflow design. - Exposure to a lot of different technologies. - CEO is very friendly.
Cons
- Company now slashing benefits to stay afloat. During the time I worked with Square 9 they got rid of some of the perks that came with the job. Weekly company lunches were stopped 2 years ago to cut costs. 401k matching has been suspended recently in an attempt to flush out their cash reserves. The company is not doing well since most of their talent left for greener pastures. This comes down to 2 things. Respect and pay. Read on... - Expect to by lied to, to your face, repeatedly. On a monthly basis (in department meetings that are supposed to give you visibility into the company financial position) and a yearly basis (in your performance review and the yearly company meetings), expect to be lied to about the company's current financial position, the company's objectives, and your value as an employee to them. During my performance reviews I was repeatedly and verifiably lied to. They tell everyone in their reviews that they are getting significantly higher pay increases than everyone else in the department (or in some cases the entire company) and then expect you not to discuss salary among your peers. They lie about there being a pay scale based on position title. They give a near perfect performance review, tell you that you are the most valuable or technically skilled person on the team and then nitpick little things like your desk not being clean enough or you not putting in enough unpaid overtime or you dare to take your full lunch hour to keep from giving you a decent pay raise. The reality of this company is simple. They will offer you half or less of the going rate for your position and hire you for the absolute minimum you are willing to take. They will then keep your salary as low as they can get away with and when you leave they won't even bother trying to keep you because they can get the next recent graduate at a lower pay rate. - The pay is abysmal. Easily 30-40% lower than industry standard sometimes even lower. Development team members will start in the low $40k range (less if they can get you to take it). I had a Senior Developer friend who currently makes $150k a year elsewhere apply for a position to see what they would offer him. They offered him $48k. - Do not expect raises during your yearly evaluations (and don't expect those performance reviews to happen on time). Force the issue during hiring if you want better pay. During my time at Square 9, my first review was 7 months late and every one since has been at least 3 months late. Each had substandard raises that didn't even cover cost of living adjustment. 3% will be the high end of what you see offered to you. Your performance will NOT impact this. Three of the highest performing people in the department quit last year mainly due to pay rate and instantly got positions for double the salary offered at Square 9. - Very poor internal communication. In spite of having monthly department meetings and yearly company meetings (though they claim to want to do quarterly ones), the company does not communicate well internally. Issues that arise in Professional Services due to bugs in the software take 3-4 levels of verification before they even get to the development team and the software hotfixes/patches don't even go through QA testing. You won't know an issue exists or that it has been fixed until you run into it and have wasted a day or two troubleshooting it. - The company is a labor mill. They will grind you up until you burn out or quit for a better paying position elsewhere. - They expect you to travel for work on your own time (they schedule your travel for weekends so they don't lose your productive time). - They do not reimburse you for all related expenses for your travel. - The PMs regularly state that "you are a salary employee" as a justification for expecting you to work unpaid overtime every week. - No upward mobility. You may get advancing titles in Professional Services as you learn the product (Implementation Specialist 1, 2, 3, Senior) but you will not see a pay raise from it and you will not be moving out of that department. The company is so desperate for talent in Professional Services that once you are there they will not let you move elsewhere internally. However, if you are on the upper end of the pay scale for that department they will happily watch you walk out the door to cut margins. Unless you are a member of the upper Management's clique, don't expect to go anywhere with the company. - Expect to see them breaking labor laws. They will threaten your advancement if you talk about salary with your peers. They will pressure you to work unpaid overtime. They will pressure you to work through lunch to get projects done. Expect this almost daily.