I left this job after three months despite achieving praise, meeting goals and exceeding expectations on all assignments. I left this job without anything lined up, that's how bad it got. This place is frenzied, disorganized and throws "work/life balance" out the window. Management plays good cop/bad cop mind games where one executive will berate you in order to squeeze even more work out of you, and just as you're thinking of throwing up your hands and saying "I've had it!" in will walk some other employee with a suspiciously scripted-sounding pep-talk. I think management read about Steve Jobs' style and follows it like it's their bible. They're aggressive, inconsistent (they'll berate you for an idea/task THEY suggested or squash your work or project altogether for no good reason) and they routinely lie about things. All the "benefits" they list during the interview process? Um, yeah, they don't exist. What is reality is 12-hour work days ON THE REGULAR, not like one poster said "be willing to put in some long hours every couple of weeks" heh. No. These long hours are every day and they will make you come in to do extra work on the weekends, too. I was made to work over the long Thanksgiving weekend (and was scheduled to work four days on Christmas weekend/day but thankfully I quit before that). If I could describe the people in one word who do stay there any length of time I would say "Stepford" -- they're like bobble heads whenever the founders are around nodding "ooooh, yes, you're brilliant!" The culture is homogeneous and creativity is discouraged. During "standups," a lame daily morning meeting they make everyone go to, people are awkwardly silent because they're so miserable/uncomfortable there. It's a burn-you-out, high-pressure, wring-as-much-work-out-of-young-people-as-they-can software startup with a mediocre product and many immature, inexperienced employees. Just say no. I sure wish I had never left my job to take this position. "Career launch-pad" my a@#. Career dead-end -- there's nobody qualified to learn from and it's clear advancement is achieved only by the Stepford kids.
