Pendo

There is an incredibly flexible working environment, especially with regards to WFH, PTO, and clocking in and out.

There is transparency on everything, including company performance, career progression, and high-level decision-making.

There is a culture of 'no stupid questions'. Pendo honestly embraces the ethos that "everyone wants everyone else to succeed" to a level I've never seen before.

There is a supportive rather than oppressive hierarchy. Despite being in an entry level engineering position, I've talked with the CTO on three occasions.

My manager hasn't demanded a single thing, and instead has essentially been here to help me achieve both my own goals of getting proficient with the development stack, and having personal development, since that has been such a smooth way to get into the flow of work.

The environment is incredibly inclusive. Look up the "affinity groups" at Pendo. It's not just a checkbox thing, they actually understand how to make one feel a part of the company.

They have values and they stick to them. You can probably find them on their website, there are right now seven "core values" and they come up surprisingly often.

They're used to settle decisions, keep accountability, and to celebrate when people are exhibiting those values. It's like a common language used to communicate motivations and it works really well.

The work/life separation is absolute. I leave the building on an afternoon and like flicking a switch I don't have to think about a single thing until I come in the next day.

They run it like a startup and gamble with people's jobs. If they're hiring, they are investing long-term and intending to grow. They expect a certain level of attrition to meet financial goals. It's not inherently a bad thing as long as they keep growing, and the turnover rate isn't high, but they are more at the whim of the greater SaaS market than they like to admit and that has already led to a small number of people losing their jobs.

The "act like owners" value is a double edged sword. Each individual gets more freedom of decision and whatnot, but equally there is a lack of direction and you've got to be prepared to take on the task of finding work to do and creating your own work, which is not easy to learn where future plans seem to be in a quantum state of being both designed and set in stone yet also materialising out of nowhere every day. Learning this process is harder than the engineering itself.

They are lax about work from home on paper, but there is definitely pressure to come into work. It's implicit, as the upper management is personally against WFH and they use the "act like owners" core value to push for this. If you're starting out, don't expect to just slide into integrating WFH into your work week. For the first few months, you might find it doesn't happen at all as the onboarding is optimised entirely for working in the office.