Applied has somehow selected and pushed managers to create a toxic culture that lacks empathy and is focused on "speed above all things". There are many managers and HR that seem not to see reports as human beings but simply tools to be used. I've seen people suffering from acute health issues not given the space to properly recover and made to feel guilty that they were not performing as before. When engineers surface issues about their manager or the culture, HR's first priority is about protecting the company first and readily throws engineering reports under the bus instead of dealing with problematic managers that have been at the company for far too long.
Senior leadership frequently lies about why people leave and our compensation being top of market to maintain morale.
In the offers we communicate to candidates, they're made to sound really big at the start to mislead candidates into thinking it's a great offer without properly walking them through the tax implications, liquidity periods, our short employee-unfriendly exercise windows, and the fact that your exercise cost is all with post-tax money. Please math it out yourself to evaluate the offer before accepting it. Many that don't, regretted it.
After the Series E raise, many hardworking individuals that have been at the company 2 years or more have been leaving the company given the toxic and taxing culture.
If you are considering joining the company, do your due diligence on the teams you're joining with people you trust to give a balanced perspective and the truth on which teams have high attritions and toxic managers. But frankly, at this stage it's not worth it. You're simply a pawn to be exploited by the people with long tenures.
This company is fundamentally deeply transactional as well with little psychological safety. If you are in need of a green card or on visas, avoid at all costs unless you are truly desperate.
