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.

Pros: I like the freedom to do what I was hired to do. In my field, no one questions my decisions, yet I still have plenty of people to turn to if I need to bounce ideas off of someone. Compensation is great, and the company is fully distributed. It still feels like a company of 30 people, even if it's now 4 times the size.

Cons: For some people, the freedom might be a bit too great, and they might feel a lack of feedback. This isn't true for everyone and differs from team to team. Despite the company being distributed, we seem to be mostly hiring in the Bay Area, or the US in general, and the balance is shifting. I am afraid we will become victims of the Silicon Valley "culture" (or lack thereof).

Pros: To be able to work for a company that is successful, on a product I actually care about, with people who are not only brilliant but enjoyable to be around... It's really an amazing thing.

Cons: Although there are active efforts to fight this, sometimes you can become an owner of a specific part of the product. This means you are responsible to provide support and maintenance of it, instead of sharing it with others.