Steer clear - toxic culture, don't waste your career here - Anonymous employee Semrush Employee Review

1.0
9 Jan 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some great people who work at Semrush

Cons

Where to start - watching this company go down the drain has been disappointing. Culture has become so toxic there are memes being passed around (created by an AE) portraying the Head of Sales as a german leader. Toxic managers who micromanage yet provide no coaching and have no idea what they’re doing/talking about. Shady internal practices. “Top performers” will have friends create accounts, purchase items which then they’ll later Venmo them for, just so they hit quota. Sr. Leadership then rewards or calls out these employees as if they're great when they're just gaming the system. Flip flop communication from Sr. leadership. Told we’re raising prices which sales will get credit for, official response on this changed multiple times. Sr. leadership advised everyone will need to attend an in-person sales kick off meeting this month to later say it will be a virtual event. Rumored Sr. leadership never got budget approval before advising everyone will need to attend in-person. President's club was rolled out for the first time last year and changed multiple times. Goals, processes, etc are constantly changing for the worse. Don’t fall for their corporate jargon responding to other reviews on this platform. Semrush shared “The Sales team is currently the fastest-growing department at Semrush and receives plenty of opportunities for research, development, and experiments.” They just laid off 32 employees and their idea of “research, dev & experiments” are random $20/month apps that do things like use ChatGPT to write blog articles. Really forward leaning, state of the art stuff. Outdated/spotty internal systems. Our billing system is a prime example. The system is so outdated, we can’t even send itemized invoices to customers. The invoices simply say Semrush & the amount you were charged. There are too many other companies out there to invest your time and effort into.

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Semrush Response
2y
Dear Colleague, Thank you for such a detailed review and sharing your opinion. We appreciate it. Let us address some points you mention to provide a full picture for all. If we talk about the details, such as Sales Kick-off meetings, it’s not exactly as described. We held meetings in our Barcelona, Philadelphia, and Dallas offices—all employees living in the vicinity were invited to participate offline; the rest joined virtually. When it comes to our position regarding parting ways with some Sales employees from the SMB segment in January: this is connected with the new business focus and redistributing resources towards Mid Market & Enterprise. Using a high-cost sales approach for smaller customers isn’t the best fit, so structural changes were needed. The processes within the company and the Sales Team are ever-changing, this is a cost of growth and development. The same goes for the company’s culture. We cannot remain the same as we were 3-5 years ago. For some people, it’s easier to accept it, for some—not. We understand this, and that’s okay. Thank you once again for your feedback. We believe that both your review and our answer will be useful for future candidates. Yours, the Semrush Team

Explore other reviews about Semrush

5.0
22 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very thorough onboarding and enablement process. Great culture and people. Excellent company & team communication.

Cons

There's a lot to learn, which isn't a con - but something good to know.

5.0
22 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The product is an industry leader, making it exciting to work on. The teams are filled with incredibly smart, creative, and collaborative people. Benefits and remote flexibility are solid, and there are good opportunities to learn SEO and digital marketing deeply.

Cons

The work culture can occasionally lean toward working harder than playing hard especially as the company scales.

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