Pros
- Pay is very good for a startup - Really interesting problem space - Lots of space to move up if you know how to play the game - Dan Amman (CEO who replaced Kyle) is a professional and has made some great choices
Cons
- Bad culture from the top down. Ruling by fear is common from the CTO all the way down to first line managers. I've seen completely inappropriate fits of yelling/swearing from managers at subordinates. - No space to innovate. Deadlines are insane at all times, and it's a deathmarch 24/7. If you're working on a project that is considered "critical" you can expect to have no WLB. If you avoid these projects you have very little work but cannot move upwards. A culture of "heroes" where a few select people are considered the lifeblood of progress. - Talent pool isn't great. Some really smart folks, but in general we compromised our hiring bar immensely in 2018/2019 and we're still trying to unwind that mistake. This has resulted in two classes -- older hires who are mistreated in an attempt to move them out, and newer "better" employees with insanely inflated titles and compensation. - Lack of maturity in management, especially middle managers. People will tell you "this is no longer true" and yes it's getting better, but it's still bad. Plenty of managers with very little experience and importantly no mentorship/support from their superiors. Managers in many departments are leaving faster than they can be replaced, so there are lots of "interim managers" who are just the engineers who have been around the longest. - Resume liability. Friends at other companies are telling me they've hired ex-Cruisers and regret it because in general we're hard to work with and carry our poor culture with us. This is a huge problem and I'm worried about finding a new job once COVID is over.