Opower Reviews

Pros

Everyone was friendly to work with. Surprisingly well run as a company.

Cons

Not sure how their culture has changed after being acquired by Oracle. Betting it was for the worse.

Pros

Every day at Opower was inspiring - the people are smart, new ideas are always being brought to the table, and everyone is motivated to do their best work because the company is doing good things for the world. People take each other seriously at work but also have so much in common that you end up with many friends outside of the office, and those relationships range across all levels - I count my old manager as one of my closest friends and will always turn to some of the company's senior leadership for life and career advice.

Cons

Though things settled down a bit post-IPO, I'd still say work/life balance is tough at Opower. People work hard because they love what they do, but they're still working really, really hard. Also, the transition from one primary product line to multiple product lines has been rocky, particularly as oil prices have been tanking and screwing with the entire industry. As the energy world settles out so too will Opower, as long as they solidify their newer products.

Pros

There is a lot of the caveat "for the DC area" when descrbing Opower, and that feels fair. Salary ranges seem competitive for DC while benefits and other perks are outstanding. People bring their pets to the office which makes every day fun, and the snacks are varied, delicios, and the right blend of healthy and terrible for you. Teams are allowed to budget for off-site excursions that range from outdoor ropes courses to nice dinners, and most departments exercise some fomr of inter-departmental comradery.

Cons

With a huge office in SF it's impossible not to compare our salaries and benfits against theirs regionally, and DC-side that's where some of the competive edge is lost. A lot of talent moves out to SF for this reason, leaving a bit of a drain on some aspects of the DC office. And since our benefits aren't always as great as in SF, there has been some loss of talent. Also, the interview process could use some work. By many accounts it's grueling, and while it's important to get the best possible feel for a candidate's talents and skills, there is so much on-the-job learning that maybe some of it can be left for later.

Pros

...Opower is one of the few companies that's on the forefront of ushering utilities into the 21st century. How many other cleantech companies have you seen undergo a successful IPO and continue along a positive growth trajectory? <crickets chirping> Opower put behavioral energy efficiency on the map and will do the same for a whole array of new AMI-enabled products and services. Your energy provider should effectively communicate with you about how and when you use energy so you can make informed decisions to reduce your use and save money. Opower is making this happen. I'm happy to be a part of this. For full review of perks, see other reviews (they are good though). Finally, you'll notice a lot of negative reviews as of late. They all boil down to the fact that company life is changing as Opower has moved from fledgling start-up to enterprise software company. I welcome this feedback and sympathize with some of it but still doesn't reflect how I feel about Opower overall as a company. The fact that we're openly having this debate about what the company is and should be is a sign of positive company culture.

Cons

Working environment is very fluid. For those of us who like long-term clarity and certainty in day-to-day tasks, Opower-life will come as a shock. To a certain extent, this is a good thing as it prevents the job from becoming stale - and some folks do really thrive in this environment - but it can be overwhelming. Be ready for this, decide if this is something you want.

Pros

* Work with the best and brightest: it's truly an honor to work with such talented, motivated, bright colleagues. I don't know of any other similarly-sized tech companies in DC that are on par. * Great pay: I get paid slightly better than market rate for my position, and my stock options are worth 2x my annual salary when/if we IPO. * Great benefits: HSA, 401k, more annual leave than I know what to do with, etc. * Free food: free breakfasts every day, free catered lunches on Fridays, and a completely stacked snack closet that would make any college kid drool. Oh, and they even have farm fresh milk and produce, so there are healthy snacking options too!

Cons

* I can't vouch for the working environment of other groups outside of Engineering. * The day to day job is trying to make energy usage and efficiency interesting to your avg person, which is tough because for the most part it's pretty boring. * If you work remotely it can be challenging, because Opower struggles with audio/video conferencing, but I think that's probably true of all companies.

Pros

Opower has been a fabulous place to work for the past 3+ years, but the Oracle acquisition has ruined all of that in less than 3 months. If you join today, you'll get to work with some of the smart, interesting people that made Opower great. But act quickly, because they'll all be gone soon. - Free snacks, free massages, and free Friday lunches are still around - Good office locations: near Montgomery BART in San Francisco and Courthouse Metro in Arlington/D.C.

Cons

- Opower's best and brightest are fleeing in droves, while only the most mediocre, least experienced, or most ossified employees remain to welcome our corporate overlords. It's only going to get worse over the next few months. - Oracle people and policies are already changing the fast-paced, get-it-done, fun-loving culture of Opower. We're going from Google Apps to Oracle's crappy "Beehive" alternative, from unlimited PTO to 2 weeks, and from an office of motivated talent to an office where people apply to new jobs all day, if they come to work at all. - Oracle ensured that the most talented Opower employees will leave by lowballing the Oracle job offers: our same base salaries but with unclear bonus plans, no equity, no transportation or gym subsidy, a much longer annual review cycle/uncertain promotion potential, and no more unlimited PTO. So, significantly less total compensation. But hey, there's 401k match! :| - No more mission-driven culture. Oracle could care less about saving energy or creating a clean energy future: they literally said as much in our employee town hall. (Sorry, having compostable forks in the Oracle cafeteria isn't the same thing.)

Pros

I joined Opower in 2015 and have had a really great experience. I love my team and really respect and appreciate all of my colleagues. It sounds silly but everyone is very professional, doesn't gossip, and actually makes an effort to engage not just at work but on personal stuff when appropriate. I like that everyone works very hard, but is not afraid to laugh and have some fun while getting the job done. It's a tight ship with high standards, ambitious goals and deadlines, but if you're smart, driven and dedicated, you will be successful and inspired by the results and the opportunity to do really great work with great people. Best Perks: Dog friendly, unlimited paid time off, on-site massage!!! Lounges, lunch rooms, a library, subsidized parking, gym subsidy, healthy snacks, good coffee, bubbly water, ripe avocados and fruit for the snagging (gnom, gnom, gnom), stand up desks, and lots of creative swag!

Cons

I'm really happy to be working here. For a young and growing company, Opower shows all the signs of being on an exciting and positive path forward. The building in SF just repealed their dog friendliness so that's a bummer, but that is outside of the company's control. I also wish there were more conference space as it's sometimes hard to find a room for meetings as most everything is open space.

Pros

I want Opower to succeed: it has so much potential and such an incredible story. My coworkers are extremely smart and fun to work with. The office's environment and Silicon Valley-flavored perks are great. And, for now, the company still has a strong double bottom line thanks to its history of implementing behavioral science at scale.

Cons

Management has chosen a rough path to growth - in a saturated market in which Opower has little right to win - and is deceiving itself about its likelihood of success. That path to growth also diverges from what used to make Opower great: its environmental mission, unbeatable startup culture, and clever implementation of behavioral scientists' findings. The culture feels increasingly corporate and the gulf between employees and management is widening, exacerbated by frequent org changes and management's dismissive attitude toward diversity and work-life balance issues. As Opower has lost its culture and mission, so too has it lost its best employees - either to attrition or to poor morale. High-achieving women leave often, especially if they have children, due to the dearth of role models, opportunities, and work-life balance. In general, employees are too smart to believe the party line about our new direction's merits, and are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Pros

* Very smart people. Lots of very intelligent, very dedicated people. Most have a good attitude and make it enjoyable to collaborate. * Great company mission. * President Alex is very inspiring and a true leader. * Good location in Arlington. Not far from DC with lots of restaurants and housing options for those who move to the area. * Fun office distractions -- lots of parties, happy hours, free shwag, to keep things exciting and wow employees who have never seen anything similar at a workplace. * Many opportunities to perform well and earn promotions.

Cons

* Work-life balance is terrible. People are expected to be always on and prepared to produce under unrealistic deadlines. * Client delivery teams perpetually operate under impossible deadlines and their chaos drives people out of that organization. It's also hard to attract the right kind of talent here. Chaos rains down on other parts of the company from the delivery teams. * Compensation is not very competitive, and Opower is stingy with stock. S1 filing indicates that the founders own 39% of the company still, but nearly every employee, new or old, was granted a negligible number of options.

Pros

You are surrounded by smart, motivated people, who care about the mission If you can get past the negatives, you are definitely having a positive impact on the world

Cons

Managers don't seem to actually be interested in managing nor do they seem to have an incentive to manage people well and help their reports grow. While there are some obviously good managers, collectively, they are ineffective There are apparently plans to help managers become better, but...there is essentially zero training or support for professional development for anyone else. Career opportunities are very limited and what it actually takes to advance is always in flux and poorly communicated (see inexperienced managers above). If you are not getting promoted, compensation increases are very stingy. There is very in the way of overarching strategy. Every team (almost anyway you cut them) has a different strategy and there is enormous work to get even little things done. This provides a lot of "autonomy" but we collectively have a hard time getting anything through the entire system without heroics. When there are actually major decisions made in senior management, there is a huge amount of whiplash as the reprocussions filter down to the rest of the organization.