Pros: The flexibility at Elastic - remote working, self-initiated projects, and so on - speaks to the amount of trust the company and employees share with one another. It takes a certain mindset to thrive in that environment, but it's truly different and liberating to be able to do so. The quality of employees here is evident when you realize that despite language, cultural, and experience differences (it's a globally distributed company, after all), almost every interaction is courteous and friendly across any level of seniority. One telling aspect about Elastic is that problems that do come up - no company is perfect - are actually handled well and openly, not allowed to linger.

Cons: The aforementioned freedom requires a degree of effort to initiate communication when it comes to reporting on status, progress, help, and so on. I initially disregarded this, but it _does_ take work (but the effort is worth the autonomy). Growing pains do show up here and there as teams adapt and the company grows, which can take adjusting, but aren't too bad.

Pros: Working remotely is a big plus! Though flexibility and trust is not always there as a result. The employees themselves are very good people, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them. I also got a chance to meet many great people outside of the company.

Cons: The management is among the worst I've seen. They are all very young and can at times be disrespectful to others. It also seems that projects stay in a perpetual state of chaos. This is probably due to the poor technical leadership of inexperienced engineering managers. There have also been a number of layoffs, so company morale hit a low point when I decided to leave. There is much uncertainty about the company's future. The distributed teams can be challenging as well. It's great to work from home, but you pay the price with constant monitoring and distrust from management, even if you're doing a stellar job. The salary and benefits are also lower than most employees would prefer.

Pros: Great team, great manager, and great work-life balance.

Cons: Nothing comes to my mind.