Happen Bank reviews

3.6

69% would recommend to a friend

(993 total reviews)
avatar

Scott Sanborn

75% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Happen Bank has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 993 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Happen Bank employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

993 reviews
2.0
May 15, 2016

Great technology and product, terrible leaders

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Most of the rank-and-file workers are working hard and trying their best. There is good ability to be promoted quickly up the ranks. The product itself is really good and should help a lot of people. Despite my review, I have a lot of faith in the product.

Cons

They claim to be a technology company whose product is in financial services. However, let's be honest. They are a bank desperately trying to be a technology company. The execs are mostly pale white guys in button-down pale blue shirts...who mostly come from banks. They are trying to borrow the tech culture from the big boys in the Bay Area (Facebook, Google, etc.) but it feels desperate and no one there buys it. Everyone is constantly watching the bottom line, desperate to make margins for the quarter. They are obsessed with meeting analyst expectations each earnings. This causes some foolish behavior like delaying necessary training b/c it costs to much. Some of the C-suite are *terrible* managers, non-inspirational, and very into micro-management. HR seems to turn a blind eye to this. There is also some behavior that skirts very close to the law (see recent news on the founder/CEO's departure). Very little dialog on diversity. Great place if you are a white male. Not so much if you are anything but that.

1.0
Mar 22, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Location is good, snacks in the kitchen, people are cool. If you are a developer, a lot of new projects/opportunities to learn something very quick. Pay/benefits was good too.

Cons

Culture in technology department is really bad. Expectations in terms how much you should work were super high. Constant overtimes, and absolutely no work-life balance. Management wants to squeeze as much juice from you as possible selling you "the dream" of changing world (in real life it's one of many of these companies in San Francisco which if it disappears overnight nobody even notices). It's not something you talk about loud, but everybody is aware. It's not easy for people to stay motivated receiving only very little of appreciation for working hard and watching stock going down. Speaking of lower-middle-management in technology department who works with developers directly. I've heard it's hard to hire decent talent these days in San Francisco. But is it that bad? There were almost no any company/team events and no any budget for it. Office is open-space, supposed to be collaborative environment, really noisy all the time, a lot of people constantly "collaborating" by your desk. I strongly recommend to buy noise-cancellation headphones right away. There is not any work from home policy and not coming any time soon. People were trying to come up with excuses all the time explaining why they would have to work from home today like "My wife/dog/cat is not feeling well today." There is huge believe in new hires and hiring top talent. I think in overall my coworkers were good, but not sure about "top talent". I don't think it is possible until stock will show constant and stable growth. I would focus on working with people who are already with the company and be really careful about keeping them there.

1.0
Nov 6, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is kind of ok if you look away from the declining stock price Located in downtown SF

Cons

Management is bad. I mean REALLY BAD. Third tier talent that got the job because the first and second tier declined the offers. Culture is toxic. You are being managed by fear. Stuck with a super outdated platform. Zero aspiration to innovate. the banking types that came in to ruin this once hot company are mostly focused on profit extraction. Mostly focus is on cost cutting and outsourcing. Horrendous drain of talent - feels like an exodus. Every day some really talented engineers and product people are leaving.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 993 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,021 Happen Bank reviews submitted anonymously by Happen Bank employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Happen Bank is right for you.