Pros: The work experience team put a great deal of effort into making Atlassian a nice place to work and to look attractive from the outside to promote the Atlassian brand and help attract talent. They offered events, free food, free drinks, a free bar, and fostered a social atmosphere. Aeon chairs and standup desks were provided for the `startup` image. Atlassian has a high barrier to entry and has some very talented people working for them. On the right team, the experience can be amazing. Upon joining Atlassian, I worked on the best team I had encountered in 10 years of software development.

Cons: After its IPO, Atlassian has changed significantly. Two years ago, there were 500-700 staff members; now there are 1700+. Heavy recruitment, reorganization, reprioritization, and shareholders to answer to have resulted in a great deal of growing pains. It's no longer the small company it once was, but it has not yet reached the maturity level of a larger company in regards to HR or management. Internal mobility is nonexistent. There are significant growing pains and power/self-protection struggles by managers who have earned their way to positions over time rather than being trained in management. In the 10 years I spent in software development, I had my best experiences at Atlassian. With that, it is extremely disappointing and sad to say my last 12 months at Atlassian have also been the worst and most stressful. An extremely strong team I worked on, which was delivering, was split up. This was partly due to reorganization and skills needed elsewhere, but mainly because the technology we were using no longer fit into the new 'Tech Radar.' Immediate management wanted to water down strong objections by bringing in people who advocated for the new 'Tech Radar' stack: Node.js, Spring Boot (only Spring Boot with Java), and Go. I watched a good team turn toxic. One painful memory is of all team members sitting with heads down during a PR review when the dev manager crossed out valid team PR feedback after a colleague elsewhere in the company was brought on to make our project more 'Spring'-like. On Node.js projects, any comments on JavaScript were taken as attacks against the manager. PR comments were watched, HipChat messages were watched, only to be raised in one-on-ones. Team members were pitted against each other and micromanaged to fit the new 'Tech Radar.' I watched a good colleague go on a performance review for using Java 8 Lambdas, which looked too functional for the 'Tech stack,' before he subsequently resigned or was arguably constructively dismissed. The IPO has led to new, large, critical projects putting pressure on inexperienced management who have been at the company a long time, working their way up. This has then been passed down to developers, with decisions based on time, the appearance of delivering, and the ability to recruit. It somewhat changed from a collaborative 'we hire smart people and tell us what to do' atmosphere to developers being micromanaged as a workhouse. Pick the right team, and if the current 'Tech stack' attracts you, you will have a fantastic experience at Atlassian. Hit the wrong team, or if the company decides to switch again, you are collateral damage, and it's hard to move internally with outside staff favored for roles due to recruiting targets. Developers raising concerns were noted as being 'salty,' 'a religious small minority' by the recently appointed CTO and founders. The same people raising concerns were some of the strongest, most talented engineers who cared strongly about the work and quality of work they were doing. Other downsides are that sometimes you are led to feel like you should feel privileged working for Atlassian. Mandatory on-call was introduced, putting significant restrictions on movement and activities during personal/family time. It was non-negotiable, a significant change to current duties, roles, and contract with very poor compensation. Trying to discuss the new requirement was met with, 'It's mandatory,' 'Take one for the team; Atlassian gives you free food.' For people being relocated overseas, Atlassian only offered help in the form of cash, which was fair in the sense that it covered flights, shipping, and initial hotel costs, but you wouldn't have much left, if anything. The fee is taxed quite heavily. It can also hang over you with the crawl-back clause if you are no longer enjoying your time at the company within the period set out. Atlassian could help better with relocation, assisting with advice for people new to Australia, such as on the property market, banking, utilities, tax, and day-to-day things you need to set up upon arriving in Australia but may not be familiar with when you get here and start work.

Pros: Extremely talented co-workers to learn from. Very effective hiring policies maintain that. Super-energetic environment, can-do culture, high level of trust, opportunities to go and build something useful outside your normal work stream. The company's strong values got it this far; strong focus on maintaining and evolving an effective culture despite rapid hiring. Great level of passion and enthusiasm for what we build and what we deliver to our customers. It's useful, worthwhile software that makes a difference to our customer's ability to get things done, and we don't forget that! Strong technical and quality focus. We don't tend to get stuck on doing things the same way just because that's how it's been in the past; new hires have a good chance of bringing new knowledge/ideas and changing things.

Cons: It's chaotic, both technically and organizationally, as it deals with aggressive modernization of legacy platforms and architectures into a more modern approach. It grows and evolves from a high-individual-freedom, low-oversight small-company culture to one with a little bit more forethought and management that is able to scale. So far, the balance is working very well though. Arriving as a new developer working on any of the main products (vs. new infrastructure, which is different), there's a lot of complexity and legacyness, large teams, and an awful lot to learn, both technically and organizationally. This can be overwhelming. Expect 6-9 months before you feel able to effectively contribute to gnarly stuff on the large products. You'll need to have initiative and be willing to reach out, ask questions, and make things happen.

Pros: Great employee-oriented company culture. Too many perks to count. Very laid-back environment. Very open and honest company. They make a sincere effort to keep employees happy.

Cons: It's growing very quickly. I worked there for quite some time, and the changing culture could be hard to deal with.