Straight to the wall - Staff Software Engineer CircleCI Employee Review

1.0
10 Aug 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The work-life balance is great. You can not work at all for a few months, and nobody will ask questions.

Cons

- The execs are completely disconnected from reality and have no idea what they are doing. - They do a reorg every 6 months (often comes with a layoff) - You never see execs and VPs posting on slacks, ever. They have their private channels and only talk in there. - They keep ignoring issues that people are reporting to them until years later when one of the C-Suite or Director realizes that yeah it's an issue, and all the sudden it's a high-priority task, and the C-Suite or Director gets credit for "finding this critical issue", while commenting that "engineers need to do better at preventing this type of problem". - I worked there for many years, and not once I've met with the CEO, CTO, or even the VP of engineering. I worked at bigger companies where I had met with the CTO and the VP multiple times, especially as a Staff Eng. - The benefits get worse and worse every year. The cost of core benefits (like healthcare) gets higher, and the other benefits get removed. - There is no way to get promoted without doing some strong politics. Working hard brings you nowhere. I've seen terrible engineers dodging work all day getting promoted 4 times in a few years, and people carrying teams on their back not getting any promotions. - The pay is low if you live in a HCOL area, it's high if you live in an LCOL area. I've seen people living in the middle of nowhere refusing jobs at much bigger companies because they would get paid less, while people living in NYC/SF/LA are getting paid 20 to 50% below market rate. - There is little to no raise. Best case scenario you can expect 2 or 3% raise every few years.

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CircleCI Response
1y
Thank you for your feedback on your experience at CircleCI. We prioritize a positive employee experience, striving to ensure all team members feel valued and supported. We appreciate your acknowledgment of our great work-life balance and are actively working to enhance transparency, accessibility, and executive communication. Our commitment to a fair promotion process, competitive compensation aligned with market data, and fostering an inclusive culture remains true to our values. Your feedback is invaluable for us to strengthen our company culture. For further discussion or to share additional feedback, please reach out to our HR team at peoplepartners@circleci.com.

Explore other reviews about CircleCI

5.0
8 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

cool tech, learned a lot, coworkers were knowledgeable

Cons

two layoffs and a security breach

1
2.0
30 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work life balance, some decent people

Cons

Leadership and HR need to provide more stability and consistency. Constantly changing priorities, processes, and initiatives every month creates confusion, increases stress, and makes it difficult for employees to focus on meaningful work. Many of these initiatives conflict with one another, leaving employees feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and exhausted. The new compensation guidelines have further damaged morale. They create the perception that the company is trying to reduce headcount through a "quiet layoff" rather than investing in and retaining its employees. Whether intentional or not, this has significantly eroded trust in leadership. Additionally, not providing annual raises for employees who consistently meet expectations is deeply disrespectful, especially in today's economic climate. At a minimum, compensation should keep pace with inflation. Expecting employees to maintain strong performance while their purchasing power continues to decline sends the message that their work and contributions are not valued. Employees want to do great work, but that requires stability, transparency, and fair compensation. Investing in the people who keep the business running will do far more for engagement and retention than a constant cycle of new initiatives and cost-cutting measures

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