As other reviewers have mentioned, the company does tend to have more work to go around than employees to do the work. This does tend to leave people overworked and lead to burnout. I've experienced it myself on many occasions. If you have an aversion to work or an inflexible at-home situation which prevents you from working extra or odd hours, Pindrop is probably not the place you want to work. If you are single and have nothing better to do and/or you find it fun to solve complex and interesting problems and could lose yourself for entire days digging into and solving an issue, Pindrop is a great place to work. Personally, I have a family, and it is sometimes challenging to balance work and personal life.
That being said, I want to stress very strongly that I have never once been asked by anyone at Pindrop to set aside my family to take care of something for Pindrop, even if it impacted a customer. In fact, I have been repeatedly told or heard someone else be told exactly the opposite from my manager, my boss, and executive management -- that family is more important and should come first. I have even heard Vijay make comments to the same. I have worked a lot of long hours on many weeks, sometimes months at a time, but that has always been due to my own personal feelings of obligation to Pindrop's customers to ensure they are delighted with their experience. From what I can tell, most other Pindroppers who work long hours do so for the same reason, not because it's expected of them. In the couple of rare cases which have arisen where I had to ignore work for personal reasons, I have never received any reprisals or push back from anyone at Pindrop when I explained that I was unavailable because of something in my personal life that I had to deal with. Instead, I received only reassurance that I made the right call and that family comes first.
Unfortunately, Pindrop is still rather young as companies go, and still does not quite have a handle on how to do things in a way which prevents the need for fire fighting and heroic personal efforts to keep customers delighted. However, Pindrop does recognize this as an issue and is actively working to get there. If this is a deal breaker for you, Pindrop is not the place for you -- yet. Give us a few more years at least.
The bottom line is this:
If you come to work for Pindrop, you will:
* Not be left wanting for things to do -- you will always have more to do than you could possibly get done; be good at prioritizing
* You will have ample opportunities for learning and growth and plenty of co-workers eager to help you learn, grow, and succeed, as well as a sizable education budget
* You will work on challenging and interesting problems
* You will be helping catch and fight fraud
* You will be working for a company which understands the need to put family first
* Nobody will fire you for failing to work 50+ hour weeks
* You will have an opportunity to contribute to the growth and culture of the company as it continues to grow and evolve and a chance to help resolve the challenges which still persist here
* You will be paid fairly if not generously for the work you do
* You will gain valuable skills and life lessons working in a challenging and fast-paced environment and learn to think on your feet
* Like at any company, you will occasionally deal with some individuals who don't have your best interests in mind or the best interests of the company or customers in mind, but you can rest assured they won't be around for very long
* You will also occasionally run into people who are grumpy or unhelpful because they are incredibly overworked; just cut them some slack and let them decompress and you'll eventually have much better interactions with them and find they actually are really helpful and friendly after all
