Pros: Smart, friendly, caring (for each other and for their work) coworkers. Emphasis on teamwork. Full transparency from top to bottom. Pragmatic, down-to-earth principles. The founders and executive team are accessible, vocal, and back up their words with actions. This might sound like Kool-Aid to you, but it isn't. This isn't a cult-like company where you buy into it and become a true believer. You're an individual with your own life and interests, and working at Elastic is a two-way street. We're all fully-formed adults, and Elastic is a sum of all of our contributions.

Cons: Hard to come up with any! * I remember management had to let some people go once, but they were given the chance to write a goodbye email to their coworkers. It was as amicable and mutually-respectful a parting as I've ever seen. Afterwards, the responsible individuals explained their criteria for making these kinds of difficult decisions and opened themselves up to questions about the process. * Since we're a fully distributed company, it may take some getting used to if you haven't worked in a similar situation before, but everyone is here to support new hires and help them become successful. * Some products have significant technical debt (which is apparent from checking them out on GitHub), but we're all aware of it and are working hard to reduce it.

Pros: I can honestly say that in the few years I've worked at Elastic, I have not once entertained the idea of leaving. This is a truly amazing place to work, and you will have to drag me kicking and screaming from my position. I wrote an essay in this comment box but realized it was probably too long for Glassdoor, so I'll summarize it: * We work on technically challenging, high-performance software that is used by hundreds of "brand name" companies. We are solving hard problems in distributed search and analytics. I'm paid to work on open-source code, have access to brilliant engineers, and have learned a downright crazy amount since joining Elastic. The distributed environment gives me location independence (I've moved five times across three states since joining), and the company culture trusts that I'll get my work done on my own schedule without micromanagement. It's an engineer's dream job, especially for more junior devs like myself. * The founders and execs are good people, who are constantly watching out for work/life balance and respecting family time (since they all have small children and families themselves). Compensation and benefits are generous. Policies and decisions are shared openly; everyone has access to just about everything. * This is a unique and special place to work. I'm humbled to be part of the company and can't wait to see how it grows over the coming years.

Cons: The main con is that you *must* have strong self-motivation and willpower. Being a distributed company, no one will nag you to get work done. Trust me... there are days when Reddit and Imgur come calling, and you find yourself wasting time. You will need enough willpower to close Reddit and get back to work. Everyone deals with this in their own way: * Some people work at co-working spaces to simulate an office environment. * Some work out of cafes. * Some people maintain rigid 9-5 schedules because they want the defined structure. * Others will binge-work through the night and then take it easy the next day. Whatever your method, you need a way to reign in natural desires to procrastinate, since you are largely responsible for your own productivity. If you need a consistent flow of feedback and supervision to stay on task, Elastic is likely not the right place for you.

Pros: Elastic is hands down the best company I have ever worked for. There is no place I'd rather be. I feel incredibly lucky to be here and now. These were the things I had hoped for in my early career: * Work from home * Good work/life balance * Paid to write open source software * Good pay/benefits Elastic gives me all of these. I have the freedom to work on the projects I'm passionate about and some of the best products in the industry. Some of the people here are the best in their field, and it's amazing to rub shoulders with them. I love having coworkers that I can respect and learn from. Another positive is that people support open source at every level of the company, from engineering and product management to sales and executives. It's almost too good to be true.

Cons: I wish we used Slack instead of Hipchat.