Shelf Engine Software Engineer reviews

4.2

73% would recommend to a friend

(4 total reviews)

Stefan Kalb

65% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

4 reviews
5.0
Mar 15, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Client offering is amazing. company only makes money when its customers eliminate food waste. Very disruptive model where incentivs are perfectly aligned with our customers. We've added 50+ folks recently including some really strong leaders across a bunch of departments. Seattle office is amazng in the heart of downtown and tons of space for collaboration. Shelf Engine is a great fit for people interested in building a HUGE business that affords its employees a very fast paced career trajectory.

Cons

Select colleagues come across as entitled similar to other tech companies I've worked at unfortunately. Good news is it seems to be limited to certain pockets. I prefer to work with folks who are passionate about building a great business. Good news is while there are some folks prone to complaining, the majority of my colleagues excellent. We have truly great folks in their respective fields that push me to higher levels.

5.0
Mar 10, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Shelf Engine reduces food waste by millions and millions of pounds. Its founder identified this problem when they were running a food company. Many startups talk mission - this company lives it. Not only does Shelf reduce food waste and mitigate environmental harm from all the resources used to (over) produce food, but the core business model is such that the company only makes money if/when it fulfills its food waste reduction mission. Other pros include a world class team, including some of the most distinctive business leaders, data scientists and engineers. The company is a rocket ship, growing at >4x per year, and signing massive deals with the largest retailers in the US. Rapid expansion is creating rapid career development, as the company's leadership team has added tons of new folks (some internal promotions, others external hires). If you want to work at a fast paced, mission driven company that is well financed by Tier 1 VCs and values rapid career trajectory, Shelf is a great option

Cons

Minimal cons beyond the standard growing pains of hyper growth co, meaning Shelf needs to put in place the tools, systems and processes to better manage its growth. Pace of work definitely intense, so its the best fit for folks that want to find a purpose in their work and who value rapid impact and career progression over a 'punch the clock' role.

2.0
Mar 8, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* One of the best groups of ICs I’ve met. I didn’t think about this, but the upside of working for a mission driven company is that people really want to come alongside and support anyone who’s trying to make the company or the world a better place. When I listed out the employees I loved working with at the company, it was shockingly high. Some really good people work here. * Management in the engineering org are thoughtful mentors who listen to employees and help them grow

Cons

Even though I loved most of the people here, I decided to leave because of the leadership, and that means I can’t give the company a good review. I hate glassdoor reviews that are loudly negative but don’t give useful details to help me make a decision so I’ll try to be as fair and detailed as possible: Diversity wasn’t valued by leadership - For a while, I thought this was the age-old problem of fast growth vs diverse hiring (which usually takes longer), and there wasn’t much focus on retention or promotion, but it still seemed achievable. I knew they’ve been A LOT of white men into leadership roles while still claiming to champion women and non-white people. Most (not all, but most) women in leadership are in HR or hiring people which skew female and high level leadership is very white. That hasn’t been getting better. Recently, an employee asked a question about a growing lack of diversity at the leadership level. The CEO responded by making it about his feelings, calling the question disrespectful and claiming we had inclusive leadership because they take MLK day off(?). Even though people asked how the CEO thought employees *should* ask questions about diversity and demographics, no answers were given. Someone later asked the core question again: are they concerned about the lack of diverse perspectives in leadership? The CEO said that “diversity isn’t just about race, gender, or sexuality,” which is technically true, but they are pretty fundamental aspects of diversity. If this answer is disappointing to you, it will be a bad match. Since then, more reports of covered up racist or sexist comments have been raised without censure. That was before current HR joined, so there is a chance that that’ll be better going forward, but I can’t promise anything either way. I guess if you’re a white man who doesn’t want to have to think about what your privilege means, it’s a great fit, I guess? But if you’re not, I can’t recommend it. They’re not good at the people side of running a company - I’ve been incredibly disappointed by how they’ve dealt with this, even from a leadership standpoint. This is not the first time that leadership has met a contentious issue with incredibly bad messaging or silence. They misfired on this during covid return to office questions (heads up, they *will* try to get you back in the unmasked office) and the Black Lives Matter movement. There are huge gaps in their ability to lead and build trust with their employees. They don’t trust us but expect us to trust them, and it feels like they haven’t put enough effort into the empathy and wisdom it takes to lead people. I have all the faith in the world in the ICs, but I don’t have any faith in the company in the future while the company has the same leaders at the top.

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Glassdoor has 57 Shelf Engine reviews submitted anonymously by Shelf Engine employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Shelf Engine is right for you.