Toptal Software Developer reviews

3.4

76% would recommend to a friend

(53 total reviews)
avatar

Taso DuVal

70% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

Software Developer employees have rated Toptal with 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 53 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Developer professionals have a good working experience there. Toptal is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Developer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

53 reviews
1.0
Feb 5, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Absolutely nothing, it is a great idea with a horrible implementation.

Cons

The company has a horrible attitude since the recruitment process, where the tone of the conversation is like they are making you a favour to let you work for them, it sounds like an old fashion cult in which you have to make crazy things to prove you are good enough and join them. The recruitment process is full of warnings that if you are not compliant to whichever rule, your application will be stopped or suspended. The tests they use are absolutely academical and unrealistic and also having more than 20 years of experience will not help because they are totally abstract and designed to make you fail rather than prove your skills, treating people like junior students rather than experienced professionals. The recruiters will just squeeze anything they need out of you and showing arrogance during the whole process. The same attitude is then detectable while working with them, where the toxicity comes out in any element of the job at any time, bringing the stress level to the stars and making you hate every single moment you spend with them. It is a great idea completely gone bad in a terrible way.

4.0
Jul 13, 2020

Review

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote and very flexible job

Cons

Don't really have cons to be honest

1.0
Apr 24, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hi, unfortunately I agree with all the low reviews here. Don't get fooled by the positive reviews, change the sorting to "Sort: Most Recent" and check the critical reviews as well. - 100% remote work - You work mostly with experienced developers (however, >98% white man) - Some developers are very friendly and helpful - Some teams have quite interesting projects/codebases - Ambitious company goals

Cons

- Unfortunately, the management is very chaotic and unprofessional. - Most of them have no soft skills (including CEO). - As a developer, you have almost no contact to the management. They don't care at all how you're doing, if you need help or support, etc. They only watch how many tickets you finish. If you underperform and you are lucky, you will get a warning, otherwise they will lay you off. - Even though I never met the CEO, I just heard weird stories and jokes about him. The employees don't really trust him and they have quite a toxic relationship. - They don't treat you as a valuable employee, you are just a role which can (and will be) replaced as soon as they find another role with better qualifications (on the paper). - Strong "hiring and firing" culture. - No diversity at all (which results in quite a toxic and competitive culture). - During my time at Toptal I have seen a lot of developers leaving (or got terminated). In my team of 8 developers half of them either changed teams or left the company (in just 6 months). - No support to improve in your field, no support in career progression. You have to do it on your own, in your free time. - There is also just low support in understanding the technical parts. They will tell you to read the code, which is fine if you have the time, but in general you are already under pressure finishing your tickets. - No mentorship. - There is a culture of blame and fear. If you make a mistake, people will shout at you. These are just the important points, I encourage you to go through the other low reviews with more insights on how it is to work at Toptal.

Viewing 43 - 45 of 53 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,373 Toptal reviews submitted anonymously by Toptal employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Toptal is right for you.