awesome workplace with a lot space for personal growth, a huge potential & openness for own ideas
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Overall a great atmosphere that enables personal growth and a development of personal work habits. It never felt like there was too much pressure or that things were on fire; which is especially remarkable as I've worked in situations before where esp. IT departments were understaffed and lacking resources. However, there were some stressful periods of time as well, but that's pretty normal for SMBs and start-ups below the 10 years mark.
Kommunikation
In terms of communication culture: pretty good, on an eye level, it felt like every employees opinion was valued & heard There were some times of miscommunication and informational asymmetry as well but again, that's within the set of what to expect from young businesses that are growing fast and thriving. However, in terms of structures: Unicorn sometimes lacks clear communication processes & structures; and sometimes processes were rather grapevineish and there's definitely room for improvement.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
The company tends to attract lots of cool skilled people that are all open minded, supportive and fun to talk to.
Work-Life-Balance
Pretty okay given that it's a relatively young company and not yet fully established in the market. I did quite some overtime during my time at unicorn, but it always felt optional & never as it would be required to work overtime. I always had enough time to keep track of my private appointments as well. However it never felt like a 9-to-5 job, so if that's what you're looking for, more traditional SMBs may be a better fit.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Always productive, on an eye level, appreciative, solution-orientated and honest speaking of the c-level managers I directly reported to. I've experienced a certain level of unwanted micro-management as well, even though it was well-intentioned, that lead to minor difficulties; but nothing that couldn't be resolved by talking & communicating about it.
Interessante Aufgaben
Definitely, I've had the possibility to work with a huge stack of different technologies and was able to manage a variety of projects and mentor parts of the IT department; even though my main focus was the network & server infrastructure.
Gleichberechtigung
I always felt welcome, appreciated & equally treated, belonging to a underrepresented demographic group as a woman in STEM/IT. Unicorn has HR policies and an official process to deal with unwanted behaviour as well.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
I'm in no position to speak about this directly as I don't belong to that group. From my experience the older employees were treated equally and respectful. However I have to add the remark, that the company is demographically pretty young; but that may also be related to the industry and a difference in work place preferences between millennials and older people.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Barista coffee, fruits and water is free, there are recurring team events, a team lunch is taking place every Thursday. The offices are nice to work in, possibilities were given to use ergonomic input devices and chairs. However there are some open space offices (which are bad for productivity as they are awfully noisy) as well and a certain kind of run-in culture, that makes it hard to focus on tasks on some days.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Unicorn sometimes contributes to social and environmental causes like fridays for future and tries to reuse and upcycle leftover decoration and ambient objects when renting and opening new spaces which adds individual notes to the new spaces while maintaining a core identity.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
On a company level: I had a pretty good salary & was completely happy with it.
On a industry level: The salary is on the lower end of the average for comparable positions in general (including all business type), and on the upper end of the average for comparable companies operating in the same business field.
Benefits: Unicorn offers deals for private pension insurance funds, private disability insurances, an IT policy that includes the private usage of devices, a company branded credit card for private purchases (40EUR/month).
Image
The company isn't fully established yet in the general public and team offices real estate echosphere, so there's room for improvement. Sometimes a clear communication of the product & vision is lacking & a coherent narration. There's some skepticism within the larger tech scene against workspace providers, but this isn't relevant for the general image of the company as it's main scope isn't technology but real estate.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There are quarter-yearly check-in talks with the reporting manager about personal development, general happiness, prioritization of work, setting goals and focuses. Given that I started as a working student and ended up being in a middle management position the career opportunities within the IT department are quite good. However I think it's pretty much dependent on whether you're part of a department that offers a variety of roles, or if you're working in a dead-end job in terms of career possibilities without that many advancement possibilities. There's some in-house education offered like language courses, but no specific post-grad/career advancement training for my specific position. However it was possible to go remote & work from intercity trains whenever I attended/spoke at conferences like the FOSDEM.
Arbeitgeber-Kommentar
Hello,
thanks for taking the time to give this really well thought out feedback.
It is always great to look at the positive things, but we also appreciate hearing about the negatives. This will help us to work on aspects of our organisation that could do with improvement.
We hope your time with us left you with a good impression overall and you will think positively about us in the future. We like people like you who are able to analyse a situation and make constructive criticism.
Please feel free to get in touch with us whenever a suitable opportunity arises.
Let´s keep the door open :)
Your Unicorn-Team