Avantages
We have a culture that is really focused on growth. My responsibilities have continued to increase during my time at Textio and my manager has continued to believe that I could rise to the challenge, yet always willing to help me when I needed it. Now, 3 years later, when I look back, I am amazed by what I can do now that I couldn't do when I was hired. We have 4 principles that, relative to other companies I've been at, actually inform our work and we talk about them all the time: Lead with curiosity, learn by making, lean into the details, and listen to the loop. Our processes are all about learning from the people around us, trying stuff out, seeing what we learn, and getting better from there. We really do live those, and where we aren't able to, we talk about it and try to get better. I thought I was pretty good at some of these before, but working at Textio has definitely made me more iterative and experimental in my mindset. I also am excited that our leadership is always looking for ways to think big. When we see modest success, we know that's not the ultimate goal, and we consistently look for our big opportunities to really achieve our mission. That's where I think my biggest growth has come from -- not settling for good enough. I work with truly amazing people here and I learn so much from them everyday. The team is always willing to experiment with new ways of doing things. When things go great we celebrate it, and when they don't go right, everyone is always respectful of each other, and is always trying to do better next time. Another pro is that the benefits are really great for a startup. We've taken a lot of steps over the last few years to make our culture an inclusive and equitable place to work, including an overhaul of our salaries and pay transparency, changes to our hiring to emphasize hiring from underrepresented groups, and various trainings. Creating a truly diverse, inclusive, and equitable culture is is a long road, but it's cool to work at a place that is genuinely working towards it.
Inconvénients
That push to be great that I mentioned above can definitely create a high pressure environment that might feel stressful in the moment, but when I look back, that's also what has helped me grow so much. So it's a tradeoff for sure. If you're the type that likes to push yourself you'd probably see that as a pro. The salary is competitive compared to startups its size, relative to what I could be getting at a big company, it's low. That's expected at a startup, but it's a tradeoff to consider. Like most startups, there are cultural growing pains along the way that can sometimes make it feel a bit chaotic. But if you've been at other startups, that kind of comes with the territory.
