To start with a relatively minor note: the pay here is SIGNIFICANTLY under market average for all roles in my department (Junior designer to Lead designer, Manager, etc.). After leaving Alkami my salary has nearly doubled even with a lower title.
The biggest issue however is that Alkami and its leaders have lost touch with their commitment to building a great culture. When I started, I found support, challenges, encouragement, and growth opportunities every where I looked. Over the years, those opportunities slowly waned as compassionate, effective leaders were dismissed and undervalued.
To add to this, the product team in particular has made some very poor hires and promotions into leadership positions over the last year. To my knowledge, these decisions have been the result of ~15 high-performers and tenured employees leaving the company in the last 6 months. While it's not uncommon for teams to change with leadership, the concerning issue is the lack of concern for employee well-being, accountability, collaboration, and personal integrity.
Before leaving, my teammates would say things like "I feel like [leader] doesn’t care about me as a person" or refer to meetings with this leader as "punching bag sessions." I still recall watching this leader pick up a trash can in one meeting and saying "this is where [product manager]'s opinions can go" — a far cry from the commitment to caring collaboration the company prides itself on. In addition to this, one of my teammates was also reprimanded for meeting with the team lead and a manager for one hour, being told it was a waste of time (they all worked overtime to meet on this occasion). In a few short months since this hire was made, I watched our team deteriorate from a lively, collaborative group to one where people didn't feel safe to share their thoughts or contribute to the success of the product.
The saddest part is all of this was documented and shared with management, product leadership, and HR but no one seemed to care. I know there is a lot of context, discussion, and decision making I wasn't a part of but it was discouraging to see such disinterest in clearly destructive behavior. I sincerely wish the best for Alkami but it's sad to see how far they've drifted from the tenants that first brought them their success.
