Databricks reviews

4.0

75% would recommend to a friend

(586 total reviews)
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Ali Ghodsi

91% approve of CEO

85% positive business outlook

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586 reviews

Reviews about "Culture"

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5.0
Feb 9, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Learn a lot Hands on CEO and founders team is awesome Rarely you get such a technical founding team with engaged leadership that’s works with respect, rigor of first principles and speed. Much less stress compared to large companies More control on personal life time allocation

Cons

Hard work Scaling work is hard but one learns Fast paced

5.0
Feb 9, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Healthy hybrid between small enough to move fast and have great individual impact and big enough that it really matters to do things well and make room for specialists to grow their careers. Good product direction and alignment across the company. Everyone feels like they're on the same team. Politics exists, but at a rate much lower than in larger companies, and level-for-level the challenges are significantly more technical and execution-oriented than organizational. Meaningfully lower rate of low performers compared to my experience in past jobs. More focus and lower emphasis on non-constructive initiatives compared to more mature companies. Many technical problems are unsolved or undersolved, and talented individuals can easily find large chunks of ownership with relatively little legacy debt and make a bit individual dent.

Cons

High level of individual ownership leads to variations in engineering rigor across the org. It's the right thing not to try too hard to rein it in and stifle autonomy, but it can lead to frustrating experiences at time. Simply put, this is not a company where every candidate can succeed. I recommend Databricks as a place to work, but for a large number of people I find I have to qualify that recommendation. Not a suitable company to coast. WLB is decent and better than at many of our peers, but falls far short of several popular alternatives with comparable or easier interviewing bars. Databricks is less willing to give out higher titles to ICs or grant higher org sizes to managers than most of our peers. Projects are more likely to be understaffed. Weak internal mobility stifles growth, especially for less assertive folks. Not a suitable company to be narrowly focused on one-dimensional output. Compared to more metrics-driven companies, Databricks requires individuals take broader ownership and is less equipped to reward narrow specialists or goal-seeking. If the above does not dissuade you, then I think Databricks is one of the best companies to work for on the market.

5.0
Feb 9, 2023

Challenge Accepted

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Incredible group of talented, hard working people. Morale is incredibly high, even during a relative period of distress for other peer companies. Everyone, from top to bottom, really feels like they believe the company is going in the right direction. No small part of that is seeing how the founders are all still leading the charge and super actively involved at every level.

Cons

The pace of innovation is hot and heavy for a reason, and so the amount of work naturally follows a similar trend. While it's not a 'sleep under your desk' culture, it is more akin to 'it will get done' and often times that means putting in extra effort.

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