- Lack of transparency on strategy and vision - You don’t have to be Facebook or Amazon, but you have to have some sort of competitive advantage. Separating social and media aren’t going to cut it. There are a bunch of apps that already do that. This is a huge gap for a company that’s supposed to be worth billions. I have yet to see anything that suggests that there’s any type of long term strategic planning. I could barely get teams to show me a roadmap for the quarter and it was needed for my job! As a result Snap:
- Can’t keep top talent - Top talent wants to know what they’re working towards. That doesn’t happen here. You’re expected to work in a vacuum and pretend to see the bigger picture- except...there isn’t one. It’s all in Evan’s head. Priorities shift literally everyday and are based on nothing more than gut feelings.
- Slow moving: Any reviewers that say Snap is fast-paced are disillusioned or lack experience. Meetings are for show, constantly pushed out, cancelled, and/or never re-scheduled. There’s very little autonomy and projects are micromanaged. There are no performance reviews, so goals (if they are even articulated) are constantly refreshed or pushed out quarter over quarter.
- Morale is low and the existing culture perpetuates this: Some long-timers aren’t receptive to meeting new people as the company grows and bringing them into the fold. It’s a “fend for yourself” environment where survival of the ruthless reigns. Some people are just mean/rude.
- Internal Communication: Nope. There is none. Have a suggestion for a new product/feature? Or maybe an anecdot to share that will help boost engagement? You’re out of luck finding a forum to share it in. The only feedback is in the form of app feedback and even that is a black box to the person who reports.
Basically, Snap is a place where you try to look as busy possible and impress Evan/your leadership, without actually doing anything that’s moving the “camera company” forward in a meaningful way.
It’s been very disappointing working here. Much like the app (Snapchat), the company (Snap Inc.), leaves a lot to be desired. I was hoping for world-class and just haven’t seen it yet.
There’s a bunch of people rooting for Snap Inc., so it will be up to some bold souls (or Evan singlehandledly—which is more likely) to get to anything resembling success.
