- Your experience will vary wildly depending on what department you are in.
- The company IPOed last year, so whatever great aspects of working there you’ve heard about, they are likely on their way out if not already gone.
- People are not valued in any meaningful way.
- There are a ton of politics. If you can play the game, great, but just know that you will likely inadvertently insult some other department until you get a handle on the intricacies, though it will continue to be a source of anxiety throughout your time there. It’s a bit tribal and really clashes with the concept of the company being a cohesive team that works to lift each other up.
- Incompetent managers face little to no correction.
Specific to R&D:
Perhaps you’ve seen a number of positions opening up in this department. This is because in the last year or so, the team has almost completely turned over. Employees have been either fired, pushed out, or had their lives made so miserable that they’ve found new jobs *in a pandemic*. I believe the body count currently is around 12 people. 12!! In a year and a half!! Not sure at what point the CEO will realize that the individual contributors weren’t the problem. If you like to be subjected to low rent, wannabe Ted talks, and be shouted at that the team is a family, while at the same time morale is absolutely decimated, by all means! Expect to be treated like a technician without a brain of your own. Expect to watch your team members be over-the-top praised to their face, then have the same person question their competence to you behind their back. Expect constant negative feedback under the guise of it being for your benefit. Frankly, expect to be fired on a whim! But while being told how hard the decision was for the person firing you. Expect to be told to lie to other departments. A LOT. Expect to be given enough work for three people (bc your teammates keep being fired!) then reprimanded for not being able to execute it well. Perhaps this feels like a hit piece, but I would have appreciated knowing these things going in, and every single one of them happened. On the plus side, I’ve learned what truly awful department leadership looks like, how sycophants perpetuate it for their own benefit, and how managers who are actually very good at their jobs can only do so much to insulate you from it.
