Pros
Free coffee. I need to hit 20 words, so I’ll add that it was close to downtown restaurants for lunch.
Cons
Literally everything else. If I could give this company negative stars, I would. This is the worst place I’ve ever worked. The founder and CEO is one of the worst leaders that I’ve ever met: uninspiring, domineering, and rigid. He has several failed business ventures under his belt, and brags openly about this as if it’s a success story. Pro Tip: it’s not reassuring to employees. The revolving door of former-military executives meant that SNI continually made baffling decisions. During my tenure, SNI began using a local code school as a hiring pool for cheap developers to build an all-new product. None hired had been in the field for more than a few months, and collectively they maybe had a year of experience. They were given no mentor, no oversight, and no continuing education materials. As a result, the junior developers didn’t know how to build many of the requested features, to say nothing of creating a secure product, and frequently sought outside coaching from people who were not employed by SNI and thus not bound by any NDA. The refusal to spend money on experienced talent resulted in constant design and function changes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost more money than they saved by hiring those green developers. I believe they have more experienced developers now, but this lack of sound judgment was far from an isolated incident, and should give anyone thinking of working at SNI serious pause. There was a disheartening lack of respect or consideration for their employees. It is truly a “good ol’ boys club”. If you are fortunate enough to be former military, you’ll be valued here. If not, good luck. If you are female, expect lower pay than your male colleagues and to be treated dismissively. Company policies were in constant flux while I was there, and changed according to the CEO’s whims. It was a frustrating, demoralizing work environment, and I saw no potential for professional growth while I was there. The employee handbook listed generous benefits, including fully-paid insurance, PTO, flex-time, and telecommute options. In reality, benefits were good because the pay was comparatively low, and telecommute was largely a myth. In addition, exempt, salaried employees were required to clock in and out, and held to strict schedule adherence as if hourly. Something to consider, given area commute times are infamously bad. The non-compete portion of their employment contract was excessively broad. I only signed it because my lawyer assured me that it was effectively unenforceable. I’ve never seen another non-compete that was so far-reaching. If you leave SNI, they will trash you in the local community. SNI employees openly stalked and harassed former employees via social media while I was there, primarily using LinkedIn to contact former employees’ connections in an effort to harm their reputations. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, frankly. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.
