Pluspunten
Clio is a company on the verge of greatness. The company was around 150 employees when I joined on the advice of a colleague, and it was a great learning experience. I had a chance to explore what I enjoyed and what I didn't enjoy. They have a very active People Operations (POps) Team that spends a great deal of their time trying to figure out how to make the Clio Experience even better. This focus on culture and values is evident everyday. Their social activities have changed over the years as they evolved from a start up to a medium-sized company. The hard drinking culture has been replaced with a more family friendly environment. (Can't believe the number of people that got terminated in the past for drinking problems...) The Founders are now all family men and there is more diversity in the Executive Team. The annual Christmas Party is epic and not to be missed! There are smaller events throughout the year, but it really depends on what team you belong to. As in any tech company, the devs get the best while the rest do with what they can (or can't). Clio is still small enough that individuals can still make a difference and impact the entire company. During my time with the company, all the members of the Executive Team were fairly accessible, but face time was getting harder and harder to get. Overall, it was a great experience and I don't regret my time there at all. If you are looking to join their one of their Product Teams, you should do so without any qualms. Sure their salaries and benefit plans are not as competitive as their peers, but the heads of the Product Teams are a fantastic bunch! Eric and Ernie were especially a pleasure to work for. They are professional, have big company experience, and are genuinely knowledgeable in their fields. They have introduced more structure into the Product Teams, so career goals are now more well-defined and they are just good people. Tys is a great leader as well, but he really needs to move from Alberta to Vancouver. Yes, Vancouver real estate is crazy expensive, but when 90% of your Devs are in Vancouver, you really should be here. Ditto this, if he finally made the move.
Minpunten
These cons should be taken with a grain of salt as they are personal views and the company has probably changed since I left. I know the CEO was obsessed with Glassdoor reviews. So Jack, don't take this personally. I found that Career Opportunities at Clio was extremely limited. One of the key selling points that attracted me to Clio was the idea that people could join other teams or explore different career paths as long as their Talents and company needs meshed. They certainly had enough stories of past examples, and I saw it in a limited fashion during my time there. However..... However, this depended on what team you belonged to and whom you knew in the company. By the time that all internal job openings were made available to the employees, the Executive Team seemed to already have their top choice groomed and already in mind. The rest of the process was mostly a dog and pony show to show that they were living the Clio Values. By the time that the "other" employees were invited to apply, the top choice had probably already signed the paperwork. This was less so in the Dev Teams, but all the other Teams had the same problem. If you were interested in joining another Team and the Exec Team had not created a role for you in that Team, you were better off leaving the company, gaining that experience, then coming back. In general, don't join Clio expecting to do more than the job you were hired for. If you want to do something else or move up, please do the following 1) Leave 2) Join a bigger company that Clio wants to emulate (ex. Amazon, Redfin, etc) 3) Rejoin Clio like a prodigal son/daughter. Comp and Benefits are so-so. I hear that their benefits have gotten better on the maternity/parental leave side, but the Executive Team go out of their way to make sure that comp is always mid-tier. They want people to join for Clio's culture and values. Fair enough, but this is one very expensive city to live in and competition for top tech talent is fierce. If you have competing job offers and they really like you, they may match but don't expect them to top it. Work/Life Balance is pretty good, but it's tech - what did you expect? If you are a Dev and it's close to Clio Con, expect to spend most of your life at the office. Everyone should expect to spend a lot of time in meetings, 80 - 90% of which are useless time wasters. Everyone knows it's a problem. Management spends a lot of time trying to figure out how to reduce time wasted on meetings which leads to more meetings on the issue. It's a never-ending vicious cycle. It really is. My views on the Senior Management Team depends on what Team you want to join. Some have great leaders. Some have good leaders. Bad leaders don't last long in this company (or they last forever). So it's a mixed bag. Culture & Values is subjective topic. Clio shouts from mountain tops about is Values. It's comes up at least once a month, if not once a week, in company-wide meetings. It's a main topic of discussion at every company retreat, retrospective, major events, etc. You will be asked during the interview questions about the Clio Values. Part of your performance will be graded on how well you live according to the values. You may be terminated for not demonstrating enough of these values. So it's a big deal. Not any different to Amazon or any other tech company. Just wished the Exec Team actually dealt with employees more humanly particularly when they decide to terminate them. The Clio Values might as well not exist then. Dear Jack & Rian, employees are not meat for the slaughter. Clio has a tendency to over promise things, suck them dry, and spit them out like unwanted sunflower seed shells. As one Senior Manager told me once, "We will treat you like royalty when we want you to join us, get everything out of you, then kick you out the door as soon as we are done with you." Great advice for a vampire, not for a company. Do your due diligence before you join Clio. There's a lot of ex-Clions on LinkedIn you can reach out to. A great many of them leave their field and do something completely different after their stint at Clio. There's a reason for that and the Exec Team isn't shy about it. One of the Founders once told me, "Clio is a great spring board into something else." True enough.