Opower Employee Reviews about "opower"

Pros

There are six main reasons why I love working at Opower: -Great Mission: It's energizing to be part of a company that is looking to make such a positive impact on the world -- and to see that it's working. -Great Products: The software Opower makes is innovative, usable, and well-designed. You feel proud of what you help create. On top of that, we get to use very cutting-edge technology. (In my past jobs, most of my requests to get the most advanced, cutting-edge tools were denied for budget reasons.) -Great People / Culture: Opower is a work hard, party hard environment where the people are extremely talented (the interview process is rigorous) and a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and there are free massages, cool toys around the office (scooters and ping pong tables!), free catered lunch on Fridays, fully-stocked pantries, and tons of fun parties and events. The list goes on. -Exciting Growth: Opower is growing fast and expanding internationally. That comes with unique challenge, of course, but even so it's fun and rewarding to see the company's products go forward into new markets and languages around the world. Oh yeah, and we went public recently. :-) -Leadership: Alex and Dan (the CEOs) are wonderful and trustworthy, and they've hired other excellent leaders who are moving the company forward and making smart strategic decisions about our future. It's a pleasure working for them. They're not business elites who are out of touch with their staff; they know what we do, what challenges we face, and they're very transparent and eager to hear our concerns and make us feel confident about the future. -Ongoing Improvement: Opower is great at evaluatingOngoing Improvement: Opower is great at evaluatingOngoing Improvement: Opower is great at evaluating its employees and overall corporate culture to identify where we're weak and where we're strong. We have regular performance reviews and compensation evaluation schedules, as well as regular company meetings to assess where we stand. This makes for a lot of transparency and ultimately a much stronger relationship between management and staff.

Cons

The challenges of working at Opower: -Work-life balance is a challenge. The people here work very hard, things move very fast, and there is absolutely no end in sight to the vast amount of work we have to do (which I consider a good thing). Sometimes, typically near the end of the quarter, you need to work some late nights and to meet tight deadlines. -Compensation: Opower is an exceptional company doing exceptional work, and I am sure many people here receive above-average compensation, but in my case I feel I am receiving average compensation. However, as mentioned above, I will say that Opower is very good about regular performance reviews and raises. -Benefits: The only complaints I have here are that Opower does not match 401k contributions and there is no tuition reimbursement for people in grad school. But honestly this is pretty equally matched by other benefits that Opower DOES provide, which go beyond just the standard health/dental,etc. benefits: extra cash for commuting, a great culture and office environment, team offsites, ample budget for professional development, tons of corporate swag, and on and on and on. -Rapid Growth: Since we're growing so fast into a large company, it can be hard to keep the culture as lightweight, fun, and non-bureaucratic as it's always been. Moreover, hiring new people and getting them up-to-speed is difficult. We're actively working on maintaining an excellent culture and improving our onboarding process, but we're definitely seeing how hard it can be to quickly integrate new staff and keep the culture fun when there's so much new growth / work to do.

Pros

Flexible work schedule - option to work from home 1-2 days a week Perfect size company - foundation is already established and successful - but still small enough to take initiative, innovate, and move fast Mission - it's incredible to know you're doing work that's helping save the planet. I'm very proud to tell people I work at Opower and even more proud when I get to explain our mission Fun culture - especially in Arlington HQ. Opportunity to travel regularly between SF & VA to build business relationships in person

Cons

No 401K matching Tight budget Quickly shifting priorities from mgmt

Pros

The company has matured and grown a lot over the past few years. Opower has legit and strong teams across all functions. Coworkers are fun, and management continues to reinforce environmental goals in our software and in our offices, even as our product offering turns towards supporting utilities more broadly.

Cons

Client-facing teams are sometimes treated as "second class citizens." There's a definite difference between benefits and compensation for the R&D org and other parts of the org. Could use more experienced leaders who know how to people manage. Recently a few strong leaders have left the company (though this was mostly due to timing and coincidence).

Pros

I've only been here a short time and I ALREADY feel like I've been here for MUCH longer! And that's a good thing. I've learned so much and the people doing the training are excellent. The OpowerU sessions were extremely helpful, and a great way to personally get a feel for each area of the company and ask questions. The benefits Opower offers are wonderful and the fact that they offer supplemental PAID maternity leave is something that lots of companies aren't doing. It's GREAT and says a lot about what the company thinks is important.

Cons

401k matching would be nice but I'm sure that's coming down the pike at some point. I'll have more in this section as my employment continues.

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

Internships at Opower are great. I received a lot of support from my team, got to talk to a company executive nearly every week, and was valued and treated with respect. I also got to work toward a universal goal that I believe in wholeheartedly: reducing worldwide carbon footprint.

Cons

Opower has a company policy that interns are 'mentored' by the most senior engineersOpower has a company policy that interns are 'mentored' by the most senior engineersOpower has a company policy that interns are 'mentored' by the most senior engineers in their division. This has its perks but a major downside: the most senior engineers are the most in-demand people. It can reduce interns' face time with current employees. There's also no guarantee that someone will be assigned to 'cover you' if your mentor goes on vacation, but the rest of your scrum team will do their best to be around and be helpful. Additionally, departments are somewhat insular and the average employee has little contact outside their 'tribe' and corresponding executives.

Pros

The people here are generally super excited to be at work and collaborate with their co-workers. You can assume that if you are meeting someone you have not yet worked with, they are likely going to be friendly, enthusiastic, helpful and a hard worker!

Cons

Opower has been acquired by Oracle and all of these amazing people are leaving by the minute. There is now drive for anyone (it seems) to stay and see what happens. The culture and the excitement the company had when I started cannot be found at this point.

Pros

Smart people... I've been working in Intel and Oracle before and the professional level in Opower is even higher. In addition you really feel valued and the management is really helpful. By the way, it's the first time that I enjoy working for a company and I don't mind answering emails on the weekend... Dan and Alex got it! :) When you feel that you are working for a nice company with nice people around and you are decreasing the climate change... What else can you ask for??? :) I would like to add that even the brand is amazing. We have some goodies that are really nice and Opower is now a real brand with some marketing that is awesome!

Cons

There are two tiny issues I would complain for... First, there are a lot of internal reviews in a bad moment of the year. Second, the goodies that are sent to the offices out of the States are really poor... We don't get the good ones! ;)