Those great people I mentioned earlier… They have almost no impact on improving or shaping the company. They also don’t seem to stay that long. Yieldmo has decided to model itself on a reverse meritocracy where being competent, communicative, and dedicated are liabilities. If you want to succeed here be prepared to ingratiate yourself to execs, take credit for work you didn’t do, and shift the blame for mistakes you made.
The entire company seems designed to stifle any innovation or experimentation. Products and initiatives are universally overmanaged and underengineered. Organizationally, you can expect to be divided into teams that have little autonomy and tend to be led by people more interested in vying for executive favor than building technically sound products.
The company is too bureaucratic to be called a startup, since there are better management to engineering ratios at Fortune 500 companies. It is the illusion of a tech startup, with an open office and a few contemporary perks; which are put front in center at any opportunity, (did I mention free lunch?). However, it is just a facade. Benefits that matter like retirement savings and health insurance are skimped on. You also shouldn't believe what they tell you about the modern “product organization” focused on autonomous development squads. What you will be joining is a traditional non-technical business that has no interest in listening to, or empowering anyone below upper management.
Leaders at the company care more about perception than resolving conflicts and improving the organization. Case in point are the other Glassdoor reviews. For months, leadership only talked about the numeric ratings as an issue, rather than the seeing the common themes and feedback within the content of the reviews. And after months of discussion, the only main actions taken were adding vague responses, and encouraging the posting of “puff-piece” reviews with questionable legitimacy. One of the few positive reviews is from a “Senior Data Architect” which is a position Yieldmo has never had. The company is led by people who are more interested in covering up problems than resolving them.
When it comes to engineering, the company is much quicker to act. I have seen engineers be fired at Yieldmo for many reasons, some political, some interpersonal. What they do have in common is that they are a surprise, and have nothing to do with performance. Many managers at Yieldmo aren’t willing to fight for their colleagues, they are only willing to fight for their firing. If you expect professional management dedicated to open communication and feedback you will be disappointed. If you are willing to have your work managed and overseen by people who have ulterior motives, self-advancing agendas, and/or a nuanced relationship with the truth, then you have come to the right place.
As for the efforts to improve and change the organization mentioned in the responses to other reviews... Don’t hold your breath. The most they should expect from leaders at Yieldmo is to be paid continuing lip service. The group mentioned in these responses, which does contain many of the great people from the pros section, has existed for close to a year, and despite their efforts, along with persistent culture and morale problems hasn’t convinced anyone in leadership to take any meaningful action. Those responses are right about one thing though. The company is in the midst of a transition, in the same way that a floating ship transitions to the ocean floor.
But remember, the lunch is free...
