Decent people, bad management - Recruiting Samsara Employee Review

3.0
Jan 4, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Decent perks like parties, lunches, beverage and snack on stock, team outings - In general, most of the people at Samsara were/are very friendly, outgoing, helpful. My team was awesome and supportive, but other departments (certain recruiting or sales team) were cut throat and very back-stabbing.

Cons

Did a 300 person layoff in May 2020, and announced a huge funding the following day to hide the layoff. Very distasteful in my opinion since they continue to make themselves look better on paper but there are a lot of negatives about this company: - Management is not great whatsoever. People who have no leadership or management experience are promoted. Only had one good manager who actually cared about the team while there. (Also, management is traveling a lot during COVID....) - Mobility to promote is ok, not great. Structure is there, but seems like its a lot of favorites. - Salaries are LOW!! For a company that put so much money into a holiday party (Cal Science Museum), salaries are very low to competition. Contract roles pay better than Samsara. - No work-life balance. Pre COVID, there was no flexibility to work from home (frowned upon) and the week where SF started to shut down, we were only given one WFH as a "test run". Also, people were working late into the evenings to meet quota or fix issues.

Explore other reviews about Samsara

5.0
Jun 19, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company solving real problems for the physical operations economy

Cons

Fast growth, innovation focused. Not for everyone!

2.0
Jul 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Innovative product, constantly growing the platform

Cons

Compensation doesn’t feel competitive for the workload and expectations of the role. Frequent annual changes—including territory realignments, account books, verticalization, and quota adjustments—create unnecessary disruption and make it difficult to build long-term customer relationships and pipeline. The company has grown rapidly, but account distribution hasn’t always kept pace with headcount, leaving many reps competing for limited opportunity and making OTE difficult to achieve consistently. The Team Lead role is one of the biggest pain points. Team Leads are expected to operate like frontline managers without the compensation or authority that comes with a management position. They carry a fully ramped quota while also traveling, mentoring new hires, leading office hours, answering rep questions, supporting onboarding, and taking on enablement responsibilities. While these leadership opportunities can be rewarding, they often come at the expense of selling time and make it significantly harder to hit quota.

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