GitLab

Nearly everything you do can be shared with others, which helps to give a real sense of accomplishment.

Work with people from dozens of countries around the world; our internal chat and team calls have made me more aware of events and cultures around the world.

A significant portion of your work will involve contributing to open-source software.

Everyone is remote. You can work anywhere with no manager looking over your shoulder and no (physical) interruptions from coworkers.

The handbook is available for anyone to read, and our issue tracker and merge requests offer useful insight for any engineers looking to apply. If you spend a few hours reading through issues, merge requests, the handbook, etc., you can get a very good feel for how the company operates, including the stuff that doesn't always give the appearance of perfection (I wouldn't have it any other way).

Summits give you the opportunity to travel to other cities and countries every nine months to be with your teammates and hang out for a week, about half work and half activities (scavenger hunt, zipline, tubing, rafting, etc.).

• Remote work can at times be lonely if you don't take full advantage of video calls, coworking spaces, etc. (though there are policies in place to help with this, it's something to note).

• Chat can be distracting if you let it be; you definitely want to have self-control to avoid spending too much time on its distractions.

• Depending on what time zone you live in and what hours of the day you work, it can be difficult to quickly get answers to questions, feedback on product/technical decisions, etc. Most Europeans and Americans will have plenty of people available.

• We rely heavily on written documentation to allow for asynchronous work, but things can sometimes get lost or become outdated due to the sheer amount of documentation we have.

Emphasize the importance of not being distracted by chat and of updating documentation in our handbook and elsewhere. The company has done a great job overall. Thank you to all of my coworkers for your kindness and hard work.