Pluspunten
The Good. VRIFY is a fast-paced marketing/technology company effectively split into two divisions; software development and content production (and executive leadership can be considered the third). The people I worked alongside were easily the best part of the job, and since this is a remote-first company, that's a valuable asset to this company - especially when support from peers is needed during high-stress periods (of which there were MANY). I managed a small team of designers who possessed individual strengths and skill sets. It was highly rewarding to recruit, mentor and find opportunities for them to showcase their abilities in their own unique ways, for the betterment of career development and company innovation. For me personally, I was able to grow my own skills - particularly in the areas of project and data management, real-time web/mobile 3D applications, and developing significant efficiencies in the content production pipeline. The work was different every day, requiring proficiency in highly technical data interpretation, content optimization, and an ability to delivery projects at a rapid pace to meet the demands of clients. Outside of the "bread and butter" tasks that our team dealt with daily, I had a lot of diversity in my duties by virtue of proactively championing many of VRIFY's business-critical systems, which was highly rewarding for my personal skill development. VRIFY gave us relatively generous budgets when it came to the essential hardware and software subscriptions needed to conduct our duties, while also having some allowances for WFH, internet compensation, monthly lunches, and a decent benefits package. Although few and far between, the opportunities to catch up with colleagues at social events in person was a delight, and being able to have the "water cooler conversations" allowed me to get to know the personalities of the people I regularly conversed with behind the web cam.
Minpunten
The Bad. Upon joining the company, it was very obvious that this was a technology start up still finding it's feet. The tech stack was bloated, the tools weren't being used effectively, company identity, goals and direction were ever-changing, leading to regular department restructures, lay-offs, and frustrations and uncertainty that permeated the entire organization. The company values were often contradictory to what executive management was asking of us and what our product and technology was capable of, suggesting that competencies were seriously lacking from leadership in the areas where we needed support the most. Despite the client base growing over 200% during my tenure, my team shrunk by half. In addition to the growth in clients - contract terms and communication with our clients often changed without any internal consultation to understand the impacts of those decisions on our team, adversely affecting our ability to keep up with an ever-demanding workload. This often led to major frustrations with management, for which I found myself caught between a rock and a hard place as the conduit between my team and the executive team. To this end, I had five bosses over the course of my time at VRIFY - meaning I had repetitive conversations around the challenges that I needed support and resources for, that ultimately remained unfulfilled. None of these bosses had any experience in professional design or content production pipelines, and primarily focused their attention on appeasing our clients at all costs (ie. the well being of our team). The lack of support and knowledgeable leadership who rarely instilled trust and listened to the suggestions of those who have relevant experience was truly mind boggling. I felt undervalued and underutilized to perform my best at VRIFY, as despite numerous conversations around career development with executives and where I could have the best impact, it never amounted to anything - all talk, no action. And despite pouring significant overtime hours to deliver time and time again, culminating in a 6 week stretch of 60-70 hour weeks to deliver on an exciting new, innovative project, I was rewarded after completing this feat by being laid off. Chewed up and spat out. The biggest disappointment is that I never had the opportunity to welcome a slew of new designers I had recruited to the team, and FINALLY have the resources, support and bandwidth I had desperately sought in order to make the impacts that I wanted at VRIFY.