Neighbor Software Engineer reviews

The easiest thing to point out is probably the benefits and maybe compensation. Simply put, you could probably maximize your short-term total earnings in terms of monetary compensation and benefits at a more established company, especially a FAANG or other large, name-brand tech company. The leadership is aware of that, and one day they want to be in a place to do so, but the reality is that the company is still a startup that's scaling, and will have to come with time and success. This is more than an empty promise, they have increased PTO from 15 to 20 days this year for example. This is simply a trade-off you'd have to weigh against the growth potential. That said, in the context of a startup, I think the benefits are fairly good. It's been a nice sweet spot of catching a rising company in growth mode while also not having to resort to going without insurance or eating ramen as you work in a garage somewhere. As a startup company, things that have already been put in place in other, more mature companies are still being worked on. People here work in many roles and do many things as we're all working together to make things work. As a result, your day to day will be less structured and organized than it might be in a similar role at a more mature company. The engineering org is also younger and not as diverse as I'd hope to see. This is something that Neighbor is trying to fix with new hires that have more experience. Lastly, Neighbor has made a bet on largely being an in-person company. We do have Monday as a designated work-at-home day (if you wish, about 10-20% of the company is still in the office), and most meetings accommodate remote attendance. But the expectation is that the company will largely be on-site and in-person, as conditions permit. If being 100% remote is something important in your next position, then this may not be the right place for your next career move.

The health benefits they offer are a joke. They touted their plans as broad and great coverage for any situation, etc. but basically all the options are catastrophic plans. I worked 40+ hours each week, and each week during my performance review or 1 on 1, I was repeatedly told that I wasn't giving enough, that I needed to work more, that my effort was mediocre at best. I stayed up once until around 11pm working on a high-priority task, and in my review that week I was told "We expect to see more of that." The CEO, founders, CTO, and many engineers I worked with were not neurodivergent accommodating. I have ADHD, which means I need to take breaks every now and again to stay motivated and productive. Any time this happened it seemed like I was abandoning the team to go on vacation to the Bahamas for a month. They love to micromanage, and are not willing to adopt or even entertain any style of work other than head down coding for 8-12 hours/day. They also don't employ any Project Managers, which means engineers are expected to do their own user and market research, create their own roadmaps, epics, stories, tasks, etc. Oh but don't let that encroach on your 12 hours of coding every day! I was told when I was hired that project management is an unskilled position, so the engineers are better off doing that work. They might as well have said "janitors are unskilled, so we expect you to empty the garbages, clean the toilets, and vacuum each night." Just because something doesn't require a fancy degree doesn't mean it's a useless position. When I joined most of the company was working remote due to COVID, but as soon as everyone had the chance to get vaccinated they required everyone to come back to the office. For some industries, this make sense. For a software team, the only reason for this is to better micromanage the developers.