Pros
I have been working for Toptal for quite a while now and I still love working here for the following reasons: * Remote work without an office at all. You might have had a job where you could work some days of the week from home but this is not the same thing. Due to Toptals fully remote environment, many things are different than in most office-based environments, regardless if they offer remote work or not. For instance, since there is no preferred timezone this makes a great work-life balance a lot easier to achieve - at least for me. * Smart people, all of them being self-starters. Every company says that but I do believe that Toptals is far above the average. * Interesting domain. I strongly believe remote, high quality work is the future of work and it's exiting to be part of this movement. * Quality first. The idea of allowing only the best people into its network bleeds over into Toptals team culture and standards and it makes it a lot more fun and challenging at the same time.
Cons
Remote work sounds nice for most people but in reality there are many people out there who are not made for this kind of work. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, everybody is different. The thing is that quite a few people start to work remote and after a while they realize that this is not a way of living that makes them happy. Some need personal, direct human interaction on a daily base (Toptal does support face to face meetings and regular team offsites but obviously this doesn't happen every day). Others need the 9 to 5 discipline a regular office demands since they have trouble getting going themselves. Another thing I'd like to mention is that while I don't consider Toptal to be exceptionally chaotic or fast-paced in comparison to other companies, this might be different for you depending on your background. If you are coming from more traditional companies then it might be difficult for you to adapt to this fast-paced environment.
