Relativity looks really great on paper. But once you pull back just a little you will see its true colors.
For starters, most positions you must pass the RCA. This test is made intentionally difficult although it really doesn't need to be. They will lie to you during ur recruitment as they lied to me about the test. The exact words I was told: "Almost everyone passes, we have classes to teach you, and if you pay attention you will have no problem with it". Fast forward to my first week, watched 3 people get walked out after their test. They only provide two classes, and at almost every point the instructor will state "Don't worry this wont be on the exam". So now that the only two classes are completely useless. They send you off on your own to just figure out how to study and what to study. This is due to their team creating the exam wanting it to be extremely difficult, so they wont actually tell you whats on the test or what specifically to study. If you ask the testing team, they will not give you any answers. The mot information they give you is a quizlets that other test takers have made in past exams. So you are again not even sure if it's the right material to study. The only other piece of advice I got was read through the admin manual ... which is over 800 pages. I am not complaining because I failed. I passed the first attempt, but having to sit in "Rookie cove" while people are frantically studying for weeks completely stressed out, I think everyone should know what they are getting themselves into. This is how they will treat you upon arriving at this company, and it a complete shame! I was honestly so close to quitting just after the first few week in disgust.
Onto the job itself, from what many have told me at the company, and my experience included. It does really matter what team you are on, to your experience at the company.
When I started on my team an engineer was immediately fired. From their things will move at a complete snail pace. Almost nothing can get done since you have to communicate with multiple teams, that cannot deploy anything due to their insane deployment methodology. If you want an API or API change ... good luck maybe next year if your are lucky. Then moving onto how their APIs actually work and function is a complete and utter mess.
My time there the only focus of the company was Aero, so my team didn't matter at all. There were constant talks about my team being absorbed into the Aero movement. While this is a good project for the company. It actually didn't do much of anything different for the customer. Lipstick on a pig.
On my team the Product Manager made everything about himself. Everything was about velocity, and how "everything must be done every sprint". He would disregard engineers thoughts and concerns and would put them down in front of the team frequently. While doing all this he would also not do anything that the engineers needed to be more efficient or even to do their job. So he would ask for everything of the team but would do almost nothing for them in return.
2020 was a big push for diversity hiring. I do 100% support this in every way, and EVERY high performing team I have been on has been with diverse members on that team. What I don't care for is how Relativity goes about recruiting diversity hires. It borders on discrimination. It will never be said out loud, or in a hard rule. But it is expected of those hiring to specifically only hire diversity candidates. It is also a very shallow reasoning. It is just to pump up their numbers of diversity hires to boast on social media.
I finally got fed up enough after the RCA, watching several people get fired, seeing the fear in all the engineers on a day to day basis, and a product manager who couldn't care less about the team. They have absolutely terrible culture on that team, and the company as a whole tries to put on this big fake company culture. Everyone can see through it.
