Elastic

This may sound weird, but working for Elasticsearch reminds me of my time at my Montessori primary school, where I thrived as a kid. This greatly contrasts with my conventional high school, where I failed miserably.

The instilled trust, setting your own deadlines, and being responsible for your own throughput really works for me. This may sound as though you'll end up working totally in isolation, but fear not! Elasticsearch has really nailed working remotely and distributed all over the globe.

All the colleagues are very responsive; if anyone can help you out, they will jump on the chance to do so.

I feel outclassed in so many ways within the company, and that truly is one of the best perks of working here!

You really have a sense that you are working at a company that helps so many other awesome companies deliver features and gain insights.

At the risk of sounding too "lovey dovey": common trademarks amongst all employees are kindness, heart, and passion. This is reflected in all processes that are in place and non-technical decisions that are taken.

This really barely counts as a con, more a rather odd predicament.

Since I am working full-time on an OSS project I used to do in my spare time, separating boundaries between home life and work life is not as easy as it may seem. When I'm bored, I simply start working again because that's what I used to do in my spare time!

Since this review has so far been too positive, let me list some minor gripes:

Amsterdam office specific cons:

• The coffee is pretty terrible; we are in dire need of better coffee!
• I have better internet at home than at the office. It's almost faster to hop home to download anything over 4GB and come back.

The Amsterdam office is going to be remodeled this year, though, so chances are when you are reading this, even these gripes are gone.

This whole year, only one decision irked me slightly: employees living far enough from an office get a budget allocated to spend on chairs and peripherals.

While in practice, everyone works from home a significant amount of days to warrant such a budget, I hope that as we grow, we do not become too stringent and frugal when it comes to the little things that keep employees happy.

Other than that, their long-term vision continues to impress me!