No direction or action to address core issues - Anonymous employee CircleCI Employee Review

1.0
Oct 5, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best pro of cirlceci is the wonderful WFH culture and colleagues you’ll meet. But there is a toxic culture of underperformance at this company that may burn you out if you join. Lack of accountability seems to permeate the operations and leadership would rather lay you off that fix anything. The main pro is to not join while you still have a chance to avoid this sinking ship. You can still avoid security incidents and probably future layoffs (CircleCI had a 2nd round of layoffs in August). The best thing about circleci is that it can be hard for clients to churn off the platform because they don’t want to invest time in onboarding another CI/CD vendor.

Cons

There are 2-4 competitors or more that do 80-90% of what circleci does at a lower cost. It appears GitHub actions is under cutting Circleci’s business model. CEO and rest of c-suite have seem to lack an effective plan for how to mitigate GitHub being acquired by Microsoft and offering bundled CI/CD. It appears that circleci is going to have trouble getting financing in the future or high enough revenue growth to support its most likely over inflated evaluation. This means they’ll probably keep laying people off. Also chances are your OTE is fake because finance steamrolls weak departmental leadership into accepting complicated comp plan changes practically every quarter that will prevent you from making more your OTE, even when over performing the previous plan, the goal posts are always switching.

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CircleCI Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your experience working at CircleCI. We appreciate your honesty and value your insights, as they allow us to address areas of improvement within our organization. We are glad to hear that you did enjoy our culture and had positive interactions with your colleagues. However, we are deeply concerned about the issues you mentioned regarding a toxic culture of underperformance, lack of accountability, and leadership's response to challenges. At CircleCI, we strive to foster a supportive and high-performing work environment where employees feel valued and empowered. We take these concerns seriously and are committed to addressing any core issues that may exist. We have processes in place to ensure accountability and encourage an open and transparent feedback culture. Regarding your mention of increased competition and market dynamics, we understand that the CI/CD industry is rapidly evolving. We continuously assess market trends and adapt our strategies to maintain our competitive edge. Regarding your comment about compensation plans and goal post changes, we strive to provide fair and transparent compensation structures for our employees. We regularly review and refine our plans to align with industry standards and ensure that they are equitable. We apologize if you felt these changes were complicated or unfair. Your advice to listen to client feedback and build what they want to use is greatly appreciated and understood. We prioritize our clients' needs and continuously seek their input to enhance our platform and services. We want to assure you that we are committed to creating a positive and successful future for CircleCI. Your feedback will be shared with the appropriate teams to drive meaningful change.

Explore other reviews about CircleCI

5.0
Apr 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

cool tech, learned a lot, coworkers were knowledgeable

Cons

two layoffs and a security breach

1
1.0
Jun 18, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work-life balance is okay but could be better

Cons

Manager who needs training - Combative when challenged and do not care enough; Very clicky and meangirlish - needs work on delivery - very disrespectful

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