Pros
For most companies, values are just buzz words with very little meaning or relevance. This is not true at GitLab. The pros of working at GitLab almost all tie directly back to the values that GitLab takes very seriously: Collaboration: people here are kind, there are all sorts of resources and helpful tips to welcome newcomers and collaborate with the greatest community in the kindest way. Folks share their opinions, say thanks, and give feedback. For challenging collaborative problems, GitLab provides a variety of resources to educate folks on how to navigate the tough bits. Results: one of the sub values of "results" is "Measure results not hours" - and it shows. People are not tracking how often you're "active" on slack, how many meetings you make, how many things you say in meetings. Being handbook and async first in an all remote company means that the value of your contributions speaks volumes more than how you "appear". Efficiency: people for the most part write things down. This is the core of being handbook first. And let me tell you: I can't imagine working any other way. It's a lot of information to parse out. But imagine working somewhere where your coworkers don't interrupt you every 15 minutes to ask the same question someone else asked. Or where you don't feel bad having to interrupt your coworkers with the same thing. You can literally Google internal company processes and get an answer. Not sure how to write a good code review? Google "GitLab code review process" and you'll find the handbook page. Want to know how to submit an expense report? Type "expense reporting GitLab" in your navigation bar and you've got the answer. It's amazing, and I think it's extremely understated as a benefit here. It gets overshadowed by being all remote. But if you're an information-savvy knowledge worker, this is the way you must demand to get work done. Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging: this is where asynchronous communication comes in. And there's explicit instructions about having uncomfortable conversations. The company explicitly talks about what this value means, instead of being an overarching idea that's too broad to be useful. I've never believed a company ever cared about this value until I interviewed at GitLab. The interviewing process is as equitable as it can be (there is still a power differential, of course. And human systems are imperfect, and I have many privileges so I can't necessarily evaluate this objectively). But again, you can google all the hiring details and know what to expect. You can see the statistics in terms of hiring length, hiring metrics, etc. There are some confidential pieces of information here, of course, but the transparency builds to this diversity value. Iteration: this value can be challenging, but it can also be freeing. I feel empowered to make small, reversible changes all the time. To pitch ideas, deliver on promises, and come back later to clean things up. I'm never blocked because I'm waiting for approval three levels up. Transparency: this is another value that lends to the handbook first pro. Other pros: Remote work is awesome. It's clear how you add value to the company. The company is clearly growing, and the opportunity is there. The brand name is super cool - I am so proud and excited to have it on my resume. People are welcoming, excited, and always thinking of cool new ideas Lots of opportunity to work on new projects, but also a healthy focus on making sure existing solutions are appropriately leveraged and maintained. All levels of management are very accessible. The compensation is transparent, and more than fair.
Cons
There is a lot of information out there. It can be very challenging to parse through and find signal versus noise, especially as a newcomer. Being remote is great, but sometimes you miss the in-person relationships and collaboration style. The company is moving at a fast pace. They talk a lot about work/life balance, and they clearly take steps to enforce it. But I personally find myself being highly engaged and thoughtful about work outside of working hours because of all the activity going on. It's exciting, but it can be hard to turn off when your "office" is just inside your laptop, and the company is abuzz with activity at all hours of the day. This is a personal problem, not necessarily a systemic one. But I think many people share this. The onboarding process itself is very structured and easy to follow, with plenty of information. But I have spoken with many colleagues who feel like they were thrown into the deep end early on. I think a start up at this phase has a lot of that - the company needs to move quickly, and employees need to be ready for that. Be ready to feel a little lost for the first few months with information overload and a fast pace of work. I think most folks adjust, and GitLab has plenty of resources and systems to help. But it can be a lot, for sure. Because everything is handbook first, everyone is empowered to make decisions, etc., there are plenty of conflicting information sources out there. I think this is true of any company. The challenge at GitLab is that having all the documentation public means that any person in the company might stumble upon two conflicting pieces of information - rather than a different company where those conflicting points of view are siloed to teams. In that specific case, being siloed can actually be useful for individuals.
