'Tis the season of goodwill to all men... - Front-End Web Developer Lab49 Employee Review

3.0
Dec 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people - smart, with a can do attitude (generally). Ground breaking projects. Cruft has mostly left the company. Below industry average turnover. Flexible work policy, for those that ask.

Cons

Some of the over promoted dead wood remain. They can be spotted with their headphones on all day, Facebook running in a small window, with a bored/moderately pissed look on their faces. Their only remaining contribution to the company being a post to glassdoor or exit interview, both showing a degree of creativity and flair that they had long since forgotten in the workplace. The company has completely transformed the business model in the last 4 years to a fixed price model. At times this is very inflexible and has led to lots of the pain mentioned in other reviews - the company struggled but individuals struggled too. Many of the disgruntled couldn't cope with FP and lots of the whinging in other reviews really hinge on this (unmentioned) point - bluntly, it can be brutal and you are either okay with that or need to leave. Training is poor - this used to be good but HR have been "looking" at this for the last few years and nothing has happened in that time. Vacation is way below industry average and benefits are about average. Generally, all things HR related are poor/reactive. The "Gherkin" - poor office space, very tired, soulless.

Explore other reviews about Lab49

5.0
Sep 16, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Working groups around Blockchain, AI, and other interesting topics - Book Club - Open and transparent leadership team

Cons

- Uncertainty around what you will be working - Can do a great job on a project, and still be left on the bench when it is finished

2
4.0
May 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hiring is well-gated, so you'll work with smart people. Projects are exclusively in finance so it's a great place to gain exposure in that industry. You operate with a good amount of autonomy.

Cons

It's a consulting company, so engineers are only valuable if they're billable. That means your success is tied to someone else's ability to secure a pipeline of work for you, or your own ability to upsell at your engagement - which may or may not be up to you no matter what you do. There isn't a dedicated sales team at Lab, so this can get spotty. Upper management's presence is felt in seasons - non-existant for months at a time, all over everything the next. They were nowhere to be found as AI got rolled out massively in 2026 and we got caught without a strategy and action plan - either for leveraging internally or for pivoting our model.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All